Fortune
by BreezyFan
Summary: Sequel to Sweet Love! Basically a bunch of Maltara fluff as they go to Raj' private island to attend the wedding of Nataras niece.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey all!**

**First of all, I'd like to apologize for the delay. Hope y'all can forgive me for that :) Second of all, thank you soooo much for all the reviews on 'Sweet Love'! They made me smile so much :D **

**Enjoy this chapter!**

**You are now Special Agent Natara Williams.**

You're in your office, sitting behind your desk. You're working hard to finish what used to be a huge stack of paperwork. Luckily the workday is almost over. You suppress a yawn, while you're re-reading some things you wrote down, making sure that you haven't made any mistakes. While doing that, you reach for your coffee cup. You can't help but frown when you find out that it's already empty. You glance towards the closed door, which leads to the busy bullpen. _It would only take a few steps to walk towards the coffee machine.._ Normally you would've grabbed another cup of coffee, but not today. Today you're simply too tired. The simple thought of getting up to get some coffee makes you sleepy. The lack of sleep and the stress caused by the wedding are starting to wear on you. That, combined with the lack of coffee and hours of filling out paperwork, almost causes your eyes to abruptly slide shut. While you're trying your best not to fall asleep and actually try to concentrate on your work, your phone starts to ring. The sound startles you, since you weren't expecting any calls. You quickly grab your phone and look who is calling. You frown when you see it's Mal, whose currently out in the field. Earlier today he offered to help you with the paperwork concerning the latest murderer the two of you caught. But it wasn't that much, and since you were confident that you could finish it on your own, you had declined. If he would've helped you, the two of you would've finished early and probably would've spend the rest of the day doing nothing. You didn't see the point in that. Luckily he agreed with you, which is why he offered to ride along with Jeremy and Blaise to see if he could be of any help to them. They gladly accepted his offer. Since he should be working, there is no reason for him to be calling you. _He wouldn't call me unless it's about something important. Maybe something bad happened… _Worried as you are, you quickly answer the phone. "Mal? What's wrong?"

His deep, smooth voice reaches you from the other end of the phone. "Hey beautiful. Nothing's wrong. I just called to tell you that I love you." He answers. You can hear from his voice that he's grinning.

You feel yourself relax when you hear his voice, since that means that he's safe and sound. A smile creeps up your face because of his compliment and his sweet words. You'd think you'd get used to having such an enormously cheesy boyfriend, but your stomach still flips around whenever he gives you a compliment. "Awww, thank you very much. I love you too, sweetie. Why did you feel the sudden need to tell me that?"

"I don't know.. I guess that, after spending the day working with Blaise and Jeremy, I've started to miss you."

"Miss me? But you saw this morning.." you tease him.

He chuckles. "You know what I mean. I miss working with you. I've witnessed Blaise and Jeremy working together all day and it reminds me so much of us. They work perfectly together, and I can't help but feel like I'm intruding. I miss the mutual understanding we have while working on a case. They seem to have it as well. It's just.. If they can work with their other half, why can't I?" He asks cheerlessly.

You can't help but giggle. "You're cute, do you know that?" you ask, even though you know that he's going to deny it.

"I'm n-" he starts.

But you cut him off. "Yes, you are. And it's just a one-time thing babe.. It's not like we're never going to be partners again. Besides…" You quickly glance over to the clock. "The workday is almost over. Meaning that it won't be long before you see me."

You hear him sigh. "Yeah, I know. But the thing is… Never mind. I just miss you and I wanted to hear your voice.. I'm actually waiting for Blaise and Jeremy to finish up before we'll head back to the precinct. So I'll probably be back in half an hour. You think you'll be done then?"

You eye the stack of papers, which have visibly shrunken after hours of hard work. "Yes, I'll be done by then. Wanna grab some food at Rip van Winkle's? You know, one last time before the big day tomorrow."

"Hell yeah. That sounds like a great plan! I'm practically starving here."

You laugh. "Alright Mr. exaggerator. I'll see you when you get here.. I love you."

"Can't wait. And I love you more!"

Before you even had time to disagree with him, he hangs up on you. For a few seconds you stare to your phone in disbelieve. Then you realize that you're supposed to be working, so you shake yourself out of your trance and concentrate on the stack of papers in front of you. It doesn't take long before you're starting to fall asleep again. You put your elbow on your desk and support your head with your hand, trying to prevent your head from falling on your desk. Time passes by, although you barely keep track of it. Your eyelids are starting to become heavier and heavier, and before you're able to stop yourself, they fall shut.

_*Several minutes later*_

You stir awake when you feel someone stroking some strands of your hair out of your face. Somehow you fell asleep at work, with your head rested on your arms, using them as a pillow. "Go away." You moan, while burying your head deeper into your arms. But the person doesn't listen and softly strokes your cheek. You're too tired to open your eyes, so you blindly try to slap the hand of the person away. There's a soft chuckle, one that you'd recognize from anywhere. _Mal.._ You're struggling to open your eyes, because you want to see his handsome face again, when suddenly you feel his hot breath on your skin. Since you didn't expect that to happen, you're taken aback by this. You unknowingly pull a face, making him smile even more.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty…" he softly whispers in your ear, sending shivers down your spine.

You obey him and, after a short struggle, finally force your eyes open. Once your eyes have adjusted you notice that you look right into a pair of beautiful, ocean blue eyes. "Hey.."

"Hey there sleepyhead." He gives you a soft kiss on your lips, which causes you to wake up immediately. Then he casually takes a seat on your desk.

You sit up straight and rub the sleep out of your eyes. You're aware of the fact that Mal is observing you, but you don't care. You roll your shoulders a bit, because sitting behind this desk all day made your muscles stiff.

Mal seems to notice, because he gets up from your desk and gets behind you. "Here, let me help you with that.." Before it even crossed your mind to ask him what he meant, his strong hands found its way to your shoulders. You bite your bottom lip to stop yourself from moaning while he gives you one of his heavenly massages. You close your eyes, simply enjoying the moment. Time flies by and eventually Mal lets go. "How does that feel? Better?"

You stand up and give him a kiss on his cheek. "Much better." You answer with a huge smile on your face. Then you grab your jacket and head for the door. "Now let's go. I'm hungry! I'm sure you are as well."

He quickly follows you and, being the gentleman he is, holds the door open for you. "You know, you should really quit reading my mind like that.. It's still very scary."

You laugh while you make your way through the bullpen. "I wasn't reading your mind. I didn't have to, because you're always hungry."

He grins at you while he watches how you hand your paperwork in. "I guess I can't argue with that."

The car ride to Rip van Winkle's is short. Mal could practically drive there with his eyes closed, because the two of you eat there so often. Which is why it's not surprising that Sean greats you warmly when you step into the restaurant. He leads you to your standard table, with the beautiful view. He doesn't even need to ask what you'd like for dinner, since he knows your order by heart. When he leaves to get your drinks, you reach across the table and take Mals hand in yours. "Do you remember the first time we came here as a couple?"

He flashes you one of his charming smiles. "Of course I do. Why do you ask?"

"Can you believe that that's more than one year ago? Time really flies by, doesn't it?"

There's a short silence when Mal thinks it through. "..Yeah, I guess you're right. Wow. Where did the time go…?" There is a silence as both of you are pondering about his question. All of a sudden Mal starts to chuckle, snapping you out of your thoughts.

You raise your eyebrows at him. "What are you laughing about?"

"Nothing… I just remembered that you were blushing and smiling throughout that whole date. It was incredibly cute." he says, with a wide grin on his face.

Your face turns deep red after those words leave his mouth. "W-well I.. I just- Oh, shut up Mal." You look down at the table, trying your best to avoid eye contact.

He softly squeezes your hand. "Aww, you're doing it again.." he says teasingly.

Not sure how to respond to this, you bite your lip while trying to come up with a response. From your peripheral eye vision you see that he's about to open his mouth again, so you softly kick his shins under the table.

He quickly fakes a sad-face. "Ow! What was that for?"

You playfully roll your eyes at him. "Don't be such a baby. It wasn't that hard."

"You're right, the kick itself wasn't that hard. It doesn't hurt physically. But that wasn't what I was talking about. I was talking about the fact that you hurt me in here…" he says, while putting his hand over his heart. He shoots you his sad-puppy face, which you find absolutely adorable.

Even though seeing him sad kind of breaks your heart in thousand little pieces, you shoot him an are-you-kidding-me look. He doesn't seem fazed by this, in contrary; he challenges you by looking you straight in the eyes while faking a pout. Both of you stay like that for a few seconds before you burst out in laughter. As soon as you do, Mal laughs with you. The rest of the dinner goes smoothly – meaning no one got kicked again – and the food was, as always, delicious. Mal and you kept reminiscing about the past throughout the whole dinner, which resulted in a lot of laughter.

As dessert you order a fruit bowl, which the two of you decide to split. While the conversation continues, you sneakily eat all the pieces of watermelon, simply because it's your favourite. Just when your eyes fall on the last piece of watermelon, Mal decides to take it. You restrain yourself from kicking him again. Instead you scrape your throat when he's about to take a bite.

He shoots you a confused look. "Is everything okay? Is something stuck in your throat?" Then he smirks. "…. Do you need CPR?" he adds with a wink.

Even though you're kind of pissed at him for taking the last piece of watermelon, this almost makes you laugh. Almost. "No.. Everything is okay.. It's just that.. I really love watermelon…"

He looks to you, then to his fork which has the piece of watermelon attached to it, then back to you. "Oh.. Right… But you already had so much of it. I didn't even had one piece. And since this piece looks a little too big for your mouth, I thought I'd have it instead."

"I'm sure that it's not too big." You say in protest.

He smirks at you, which usually means that he's up to no good. "Wanna bet that this won't fit in your mouth as a whole?"

You widely grin at him. "Oh, you're so on." _How difficult can it possibly be? I'll just bite it in half and voila, I'll prove him wrong!_

He brings his fork to your mouth, and you take it in your mouth. _Uh-oh… _You try to bite it, but it doesn't budge. Your eyes widen in horror when you realize that Mal must've been right. On the other end of the table he bursts into laughter. You move the piece of fruit with your tongue until you found a soft spot that's easy to bite. Then you quickly chew it and swallow it, trying to hold back your laughter yourself. As soon as you've swallowed it down you burst into laughter as well. Eventually you snap out of your laughing fit. You look around, and see some people looking weirdly at you, but you couldn't care less. Mal slowly but surely calms down as well, however, he keeps chuckling to himself. You stare out of the window in embarrassment, trying your best to avoid any conversation with him. A bird passing by catches your attention, and causes you to get lost in your thoughts. You're not really thinking about anything in particular, when Mal scrapes his throat. You immediately direct your attention to him and shoot him a quizzical look.

He nods towards the window. "Saw you staring. Would you like to step outside for a second?" he asks with a grin on his handsome face.

You nod at him and get up. While you grab your stuff, Mal throws some money on the table for Sean, and walks over to the door. He holds it open for you, for which you thank him with a smile and a quick kiss on his cheek. You step outside, onto the deck, and after he closed the door behind himself he follows you to the balustrade. You look out over the beautiful city, realizing that this view will never fail to bore you. You smile when you feel Mal standing behind you, wrapping his arms tightly around you and resting his chin on your shoulder. He leans in and gives you a tender, soft kiss on your cheek, gaining a smile from you. Then he follows your gaze and looks at the view in front of him. Several minutes pass in silence, until he eventually re-directs his gaze at you and breaks the silence. "Nat?" he asks softly, almost so softly that you didn't hear it.

"Yes babe?" you ask, still half in your own thoughts.

There's a short silence, as if he's hesitant to say the following. "You look beautiful today.."

The sweetness of these words immediately pulls you back into reality. "Thank y-" you start.

But he interrupts you. "Just like any other day."

It takes you a second or two to recover from that compliment. You can't stop the light blush that's forcing its way to your cheeks. "…Thank you sweetheart. I have to say that you look very handsome today. Just like any other day."

"Thank you." He softly kisses you on your cheek. As on cue, a sudden cold breeze makes both of you shiver. "Let's go home, shall we?" he softly whispers into your ear.

_Home.._ Just hearing that makes you smile uncontrollably. Mal and you recently bought a new apartment together, close to the precinct. "Sure. Whatever you want, baby." You make your way towards the car, saying goodbye to Sean when you walk through the restaurant. As soon as you get inside the car, another memory comes to surface, making you giggle.

Mal, who just sat down on the driver seat, looks at you, the questions written all over his face.. "What are you thinking about?"

"Oh, nothing, really. Just thinking about the first time we had a 'ride' in this car, if you know what I mean… Do you still remember that?"

All of a sudden his face is decorated by a huge grin. "How could I possibly forget one of the best moments in my life?"

You swiftly make eye contact with him and you can see that he's thinking about that particular night. You look over your shoulder, to the backseat, and then back to Mal. You give him a 'wanna-go-again?' look.

Instead of saying yes, he quickly looks around, seeing that it's still fairly crowded outside and hesitates. "..You mean like… Now?"

You lean towards him and bring your face close to his while you loosen up his tie. "Yes. Now. Unless… You're not up for it.." you softly say. You look back into his eyes, seeing nothing but desire in his ocean blue eyes.

"Oh, I'm _up_ for it, if you catch my drift.. It's just.. What if we get caught?"

"Really? That's what you worry about? It didn't stop you last time. Or the time before that.. Or the ti-" you tease while you start to unbutton his shirt.

But he interrupts you. "Alright, alright I get it. So I've been a bad boy.. A lot… However, last time we were at an abandoned parking lot, not in the middle of the city. There's a big difference."

You stop unbuttoning his shirt and look up to him. "So.. What are you suggesting we'd do instead?"

"Well, I believe we do have something called a 'house', which contains something called a 'bed'.. We could go there?"

_*Several hours later*_

You cuddle up with Mal and rest your head on his muscular chest. He gently strokes your hair. Both of you are struggling to catch your breath. You enjoy the sound of his racing heartbeat, and it doesn't take long before it's all you're focussing on. Until you hear his voice again, that is. "Nat? Are you still awake?"

You lift your head up and look up to him. "Hmm yes I am. What is it babe?"

"I was just thinking.."

"Wow. You were thinking..? Quick! Someone call the paper! Mal Fallon was thinking!" you say jokingly.

There's a short silence before he continues. "…And I realized that I'm very fortunate to have you in my life." Then he softy kisses your forehead.

Struck by his sweet words, you're momentarily lost for words. "..Really?"

"Yes, really.."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I think that I'm very fortunate to have you in my life as well." You lean in and tenderly kiss his soft lips. Then you return to your original position. He continues to stroke your hair, and you fall asleep in no time.

**Oh, btw, I was thinking of making this more of an 'interactive story'. So just like CoD, I'd come up with the general story line, but you guys can influence certain things by voting :p Thought it'd be fun to make this a little joint-project! So… My first question is; What kind of car would you like to see Mal drive? It can be ANY car, it doesn't matter how expensive it is lol. (I'm in love with the Ferarri California, I mean, omfg look at those curvessss! So I wouldn't mind seeing him driving that.. But hey, interactive story ftw!) Let me know what you think!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey all!**

**Eid Mubarak to all the Muslim readers! Sorry for the delay (again). I promise that I'll post the next chapter a lot sooner…. (Shouldn't be that hard since it took me ages to post this one) XD **

**Hope y'all enjoy it though! **

**You are now Detective Mal Fallon.**

The blaring sounds of the alarm clock on your nightstand wakes you up. You groggily open your eyes and quickly turn it off. Then you turn on your side and look at Natara who's lying beside you. She's lying on her back, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, which you find incredibly cute. Once she's done, she turns her head and looks to you. As soon as you lock eyes, a smile finds its way to her face. "Good morning beautiful." you say as you stroke some lose strands of hair out of her face.

"A very good morning to you too, handsome." She says back, thus completing your morning ritual.

You lean in and kiss her softly on the lips before you get out of bed. You make your way to door, planning to go to the kitchen to turn on the coffee machine. In the mean time Natara gets out of bed as well. She immediately makes her way to the bathroom. Since you were paying attention to her, instead of paying attention to where you're walking, you accidently bump into the packed suitcases standing in the hallway. You yelp in pain and scowl at the suitcases as if it's their fault. "Ah hell! Forgot those fucking things were there." you softly cuss to yourself. You rub the sore spot on your leg. _At least it's not bleeding, so I guess it could be worse.._ Then you continue your way to the kitchen, making sure that you walk around the suitcases this time. After turning on the coffee machine you make your way back and join Natara in the bathroom. The two of you quickly get ready for an exciting day.

Not much later you're headed downstairs with the suitcases. Natara is still upstairs, busy perfecting her hair or something like that, while you load the suitcases into the back of your late 60s roadster. You take a seat on the hood of your car and wait for her. After a few minutes you impatiently glance at your watch, an expensive-looking Rolex that you received as a birthday present from Raj, and see that you're about to be late if Natara doesn't hurry up. You'd promised everyone at the precinct that you'd stop by around 8 AM to say your goodbyes before you left for your 1-week vacation.

_Vacation.. I really like the sound of that. I mean, I can barely remember the last time I went on vacation… Although this isn't a real vacation, since it is combined with a family-event._ _Not that that matters to me; I'm still very excited about it! In fact, the family-event makes it even more special. It's going to be so amazing. I don't even care that it's a fairly short vacation, because we're going to spend it at a private island owned by Raj. From what I heard, it could easily be heaven on earth. This vacation couldn't be better. I mean, this is going to be the first time I'll attend an Indian wedding. But I think that the most exciting thing is the fact that I'm finally going to meet the rest of Natara's family.. I've been eager to meet each and every one of them ever since Natara has told me some funny family stories. They sound like some of the most friendly, pleasant people in the world. More importantly, they sound like a bunch of fun! Natara has been very enthusiastic for the past weeks, because she can't wait to see them again. And honestly, her enthusiasm has affected me as well, which is why I'm probably just as excited to meet them, even though I don't even know them. I think that the person that I'm most eager to meet is Molly, the woman who is getting married. Nat told me so much about her._ _And the fact that Raj cares so much about her that he's willing to pay for her entire wedding makes me even more curious._

Two months ago Natara received a phone call from a very excited Anita. She called because one of Natara's nieces, namely Molly, recently got engaged to her long time boyfriend, Tom. Since Mollys father, an older brother of Raj, recently passed away, Raj himself offered to organize & pay for the wedding instead, to keep up the family honour. He arranged for the wedding to take place on a private island, which is located somewhere between Indonesia and India. He chose that location because he wanted it to be a private matter. He didn't even care about the travel costs. In fact, he offered to pay them for everyone. He left the rest of the organization over to Anita, who asked Natara to help her. Together, and sometimes with a little bit of help from Neha, they organized a complete wedding. You offered to help a few times as well, but it soon became clear that you weren't the wedding-planner type of guy. So you left it over to the women. The wedding itself will take about three days, but Raj invited you to stay a little longer, an offer that you gladly accepted.

You get pulled out of your thoughts when Natara finally steps out of the door and strolls towards you. As soon as she's in hearing distance you get up and grin at her. "Your carriage awaits, your majesty." You open the passenger side door for her and extend a hand to help her in.

She smiles while she gladly takes it and gets in the car, after which you jokingly take a bow. You quickly walk around the car and hop into the driver seat.

"Well, someone's perky this morning.." Natara remarks as you buckle your seatbelt.

You grin at her as you start the car. "I'm just really excited about our vacation. Plus I'm finally going to meet the rest of your family! Although that kind of terrifies me as well, if I'm being honest with you.."

"It terrifies you? How come?"

There's a short silence, as you're contemplating whether or not to tell Natara what you're thinking, because you know that it sounds kind of silly and childish. Eventually you decide to go through with it. You take in a deep breath, while trying to find the courage to speak your mind, you breathe out deeply and sheepishly start talking. "I don't know... I guess because they all sound like really great people from what you've told me. And I want them to like me. But what if I don't live up to their expectations..? What if I'll get rejec-"

But before you're able to finish your sentence, Natara interrupts you. "Don't be so silly, babe. I'm sure that they'll love you. It would be crazy if they didn't." she takes your hand from the gearshift and gives it a reassuring squeeze. You quickly glance at her, and flash her a charming smile to let her know that you're okay when you see that she's looking at you.

Now that you're reassured, you adjust the way you're holding the steering wheel to a more comfortable, confident position. "Thanks, Nat.." Not too much later, you pull up in front of the San Francisco Police Department. You get out, and observe the building as you walk towards it. _Man, I'm going to miss this place.. Even if I'll only be away for a week, the SFPD has been like my second home ever since I was a little kid.. These people are my family, and I'll miss them. All of them. Well, maybe not all of them. I could really use a Kalaba-break… _Meanwhile you've reached the entrance, so you open the door and hold it open for Natara, who steps in after you. The two of you make your way to the crime lab, where you've agreed to meet the others.

"Hey gu-" you start as you open the door.

The door is barely fully opened when you see a flash of something white quickly headed towards you. Before you're eyes were able to identify what it is, you feel something tugging at your collar. "Oh my God! Amy just told me the bad news! You're leaving me for a whole week?!" You frown and open your mouth to answer when you're suddenly pulled into a hug, "I'm going to miss you so mu-"

You quickly shove the person away from yourself. "Kai, get off of me!"

You accidentally push him harder than you intended, causing him to trip over his own feet and fall backwards. There's a soft "Ow!" coming from him as he lands on his butt.

Before you're able to open your mouth to apologize, the sound of laughter fills the room. You quickly glance through the crime lab and see the happy faces of Jeremy, Blaise, Kai and Amy. Amy recently returned to the precinct after she did whatever it was that she had to do to process everything that had happened to her. She's the one who steps forward and helps Kai to get back on his feet. Meanwhile Natara places a hand on your shoulder. "Mal, baby, relax a little.. We're going on vacation after all." she says with a soft squeeze.

A sudden phone call breaks the laughter. Jeremy quickly answers his phone. "Hello? ..Where? …Okay, we'll be right there." He says as he motions for Blaise to follow him. "Can you fill me in on what happened?" he asks. While the person on the other line continues to talk, he mouths 'I'm sorry.' and gestures to his phone. You wave it away like it's nothing. He exits the crime lab, and Blaise is about to follow him when she changes her mind and walks back to give you and Natara a group hug. "You guys have fun this week. Have a few drinks for me and Jeremy, will ya?" she asks with grin.

Next to you Natara starts laughing. You can't help but smile yourself. You give her a 'thumbs up' before she turns on her heels and leaves the crime lab as well. You turn back around and see that Amy put Kai to work. She herself is waiting to properly say goodbye to you. She looks down to the ground

"I can't believe you guys are leaving so soon after I've returned.."

You immediately feel bad, because you know that Natara&you are one of the main reasons that Amy returned, and now you're kind of leaving her behind. Natara apparently feels the same way, because she pulls Amy in a deep hug. "I know Amy, we're sorry.."

You awkwardly scratch the back of your neck. "Yeah.. You know we'd love to stay, but..."

She flashes you a sad smile. "Don't worry about it. I get it. You have to go. But I'm going to miss you guys nevertheless." She releases Natara and stands on her toes to hug you as well.

You wrap your arms around her and rub her back as a sign of support. "We're gonna miss you as well. But one week is practically nothing. We'll be back before you know it! Plus, you have Kai to keep you company.."

You let her go and smile when you see that her smile turns into a more genuine one. "That's true.." she says softly, while looking back at Kai. He's busy typing something, and doesn't even notice it. "Well.. I guess this is it. Have fun! I'll see you guys when you get back."

You flash her a reassuring smile. "Bye Amy. Until then." Then you turn around to leave the crime lab.

Natara says goodbye as well, and gives Amy a last, quick hug. Just as you reach the exit, she says goodbye to Kai. He immediately responds when he hears his name and yells "Byeee! Don't forget to make some beautiful Maltara babies! I already picked out some names f-" You quickly slam the door shut behind Natara to drown out the sound.

After a quick drive to the airport the two of you check in and give them your luggage. Then you walk towards the gate. You notice that it's fairly crowded in the other hallways, compared with the hallway that you're heading to. But you don't think much of it. _The other people are probably a bunch of early-birds or something._ But as soon as you reach the gate and see that there's almost no one there, you start to get suspicious. "Nat, where are the other people?"

She shoots you a confused look. "What other people?" Meanwhile she flashes the ground steward both of your tickets and passports.

Now it's your turn to look confused. "The other people that are supposed to board the plane.." The ground stewards checks your names, nods in approval, and gestures that you can continue before she hands everything back.

Natara gladly accepts it, and puts everything safely in her bag. "Oh honey, haven't I told you that it's a private plane?"

"Wait, what? No, you haven't.."

She smirks at you. "Babe, we're going to a private island, did you really think a public plane was going to fly there just for us? Of course we're taking a private plane." She reaches over and softly pats your cheek, and then she turns around and walks through the door, towards the plane.

"Well.. If you put it like that…." You mumble to yourself. Then you quickly follow her. A few moments later your mouth almost falls open when you step out and notice the luxurious plane in front of you. It is huge, way too huge to be for just the two of you. It looks like it could easily fit at least 10 other people. You were so mesmerized by the plane that you didn't even notice the pilots standing in front of it until you were standing right in front of them and Natara started to greet them. You force yourself to take your eyes off of the plane and extend your hand to greet them as well. After a short introduction they board the plane, gesturing for the two of you to follow them. You obey and walk up the stairs behind Natara. Once you step inside, you instantly smile. _Woah, this is awesome. _The plane doesn't even look like a plane from the inside. It looks more like a fancy living room. There's a huge flat screen TV, surrounded with a couch and some comfy looking chairs. There's even a kitchen with an enormous fridge on the other side of the plane. Since you're not hungry yet, you walk over to the living room part. You let yourself fall on the couch and make yourself comfortable. You grab the TV remote from the coffee table in front of you and flip it on. "Hmm.. Yep, this is gonna be my spot. If you need me, I'll be over here, watching TV until I fall asleep."

Natara follows you and starts to chuckle. "You're going to sleep the whole flight?" She puts her bag on the table and starts to unpack it.

"No.. Just a part. I know I can sleep a lot, but even I can't sleep for 20 hours straight babe."

"Just checking…. Are you sure that you're going to sleep at all? You'll probably experience some major jetlag if you do."

You sit up, so that you can see Natara while you're talking to her, and support yourself with your arms. "Oh really? Why don't you enlighten me.."

"If everything goes well, we'll arrive just in time for dinner, and soon after that it's already time to sleep. Meaning that if we're going to sleep in the plane, we'll never be able to sleep once we've landed."

There's a short silence while you're thinking it through. "Okay.. I guess you have a point. But what am I supposed to do for the next 20 hours?"

"Well… I brought a book." She says, while holding up a book that she just got out of her bag. "Don't you have something?"

"Uuhm.. No, not exactly. I didn't think it was necessary…"

"But I told you to take some precautions!"

You mischievously grin at her. "I did!" You suddenly grab Natara and pull her on top of you. "Kind of…" You give her a long, tender kiss. "I brought you, didn't I?" you whisper in her ear, making her giggle.

*_About 20 hours later.*_

You're lying on the couch with your eyes closed, although you're awake. Natara's lying on top of you, probably sleeping. The last few hours of the flight both of you had gotten enormously tired and decided to take a quick nap, so that you wouldn't be zombies when you finally land. You fell asleep for a while, but you have no idea how much time has passed in the mean time. Not that you care.. You're simply enjoying the closeness with Natara. You're softly stroking her hair, careful not to wake her up. Somehow you failed, because you suddenly hear her voice. "Mal?"

You quickly open your eyes and look down at the person lying on top of your chest. "Yeah babe?"

She slowly sits up, while staring out the window with a big smile on her face. "I think we're here.. Look!"

She gets up and walks over to the window. You imitate her actions and stand behind her, watching over her shoulder. Your eyes widen as you see that the land underneath you spreads as far as your eyes can reach. From what you can see there is a huge house in the middle of the island. The rest of the island is decorated with smaller houses close to the beach. "Wait.. THAT is your dads private island?" you say, the astonishment clear in your voice.

"Yes, it is. I know it's kind of big, but-"

"KIND OF big? Are you sure that we aren't flying over Asia instead of your dads island? Because it looks more like a freaking continent than like an island!"

She playfully rolls her eyes at you. "Okay, now you're just exaggerating…"

"….Maybe a little.. But damn, I know that your dad is loaded, but this is crazy. How can he possibly afford all this?"

"Whenever my family isn't using this island for private purposes, my dad rents the small beach houses to his wealthy business partners, so this island practically pays for itself."

"Hmm, okay.." You look outside the window again. "I'll probably get lost if you'll leave me alone down there."

She kisses you softly on your cheek. "Good thing you don't have to worry about that then.."

Turns out that Natara was right, and you were actually flying over the private island owned by Raj, because a few moments later the pilots warned you that they were going to land. After a smooth landing, the doors to the plain open and a portable-stairs is being rolled towards it to let you out. You thank the pilots for flying you safely across the world before you follow Natara out of the plane. As soon as you do, you're forced to squint your eyes because the bright sunlight shines into your eyes. Your eyes take a second to adjust. _Damn, should've put my sunglasses on, but they're in my suitcase. Oh well.. _You look around and see that you've landed close to the huge house in the middle of the island. Then you look down and see Neha, Anita and Raj waiting for you. Natara practically runs of the stairs, into the arms of her family. You smile widely while you quickly follow her. You're getting hugs from both Anita and Neha, while Raj gives you a firm handshake. "I take it that you could use a good meal after such a long journey?"

As the words leave his mouth, you start to realize how hungry you really are. The snacks in the plane were great, but that's all they really were. Snacks. You nod. "Actually, yes. That would be great."

"We'll get some dinner in a minute, but first..." He puts his hand on your back and pushes you towards the other side of the house. When you walk around the corner, you see a huge open place. There are several trucks parked on it. You look back to Natara, and see that's she's just as confused as you are. Meanwhile Raj digs into his pockets and retrieves something small, that looks like a little remote control. "As you've probably seen from the plane, this island is pretty big. It would take a few hours to get from one place to another if you'd go by foot. So this is why I've arranged another way of transport. Since you're the first one here, you get to choose first." He says as he pushes a few buttons. The back of the trucks open, and you're completely stunned by what you see in front of you. Inside of each truck are a few of the most desirable cars ever made in human history. You don't even know where you should look, because there is so much eye candy in front of you. The cars differ from old roadsters, like your car back home, to some of the newest sport cars. There is one particular car that catches your eye. It's like the car is calling you to come over, and you automatically walk up to it and run your hand over the dark red hood. "The Ferrari F12berlinetta… Wow…" you say more to yourself, than to anyone else.

Raj suddenly appears next to you. "Do you like it?"

"Like it? I adore it. This is a beautiful car.." Your hand slides from the dark red hood to the matt black body of the car. "And I love what you've done with the colours. It's not your average red Ferrari. It's simple, yet stylish."

All of a sudden Raj presses a set of keys into your hands. "That's settled then. It's yours, at least for this week. The other keys are the keys to a small beach house where the two of you will be staying. I'll have someone programme the route in your navigation system as we have dinner. Now come on, it is time for dinner."

You're so overwhelmed by the fact that you get to drive the Ferrari that you barely understood what he said. But you quickly nod just in case. You let yourself get escorted towards what seems to be the main building. You follow them into the dining room, and within no-time dinner is served. Everything goes smoothly, but you can't help but wonder where the rest of the people are. This is a wedding after all. Eventually you reach a point where you can't stop your curiosity anymore. "So.. Where are the other people?"

"I thought it'd be nice to have a little family time before the others join us, so I scheduled them to arrive in the next two days. Molly's family will arrive tomorrow, and Tom and his family will arrive the day after that."

"Why does Tom's family arrive a day later?"

Raj shoots Natara a confused glance. "Haven't you told him?"

She just shrugs. "No, not yet. I thought I'd explain everything as it happened.." Then she turns to you. "But since you asked, it's customary for the grooms parents to travel to he bride's family home to formalise the relationship. Then a large feast is organised by the bride's family to celebrate this occasion."

"Oh, okay. That sounds fairly logical." You say with a slight smile. Raj continues to explain that this island holds enough houses for everyone who's going to attend the wedding. He tells you that Mollys family will reside on one part of the island, and Toms family will reside on the other side to avoid awkward encounters. During the rest of the dinner Raj, Anita and Natara inform you about the significance of certain Indian rituals. Meanwhile Neha keeps making funny faces, trying her best to make you laugh. Time really flies by, and before you know it dinner is over. You lean back into your chair, fully satisfied. You immediately regret it, because your eyes are starting to fall close. So you sit straight again and rub your eyes. You try your best to stay awake, but your sleep deprivation is starting to catch up with you. The same apparently goes for Natara, because she can't help but yawn, which doesn't go unnoticed.

"Oh I'm so sorry dear, I got so caught up in the fun that I almost forgot that you travelled from across the world. You two must be tired! Let's get you to bed.." Anita says with a worried expression on her face.

"Mom, it's fine. Really.." Natara tries.

But the look on Anita's face doesn't change. "No, no, I insist. Raj, is their car ready?"

"Yes dear, and their luggage has been delivered as well."

"Good, go and get some rest. We'll see you tomorrow. Good night."

The tone of her voice tells you that she's not playing around, so you quickly get up. Natara does the same next to you. Everyone wishes each other goodnight before Natara and you leave to find the Ferrari that you 'picked out' standing on the driveway. You take the key from your pocket and open the door. When you do, your stomach does a little flip from excitement. You feel like you're a little boy again, who just got his first police car from his dad for Christmas. You quickly get into the drivers seat and buckle your seatbelt. Then you take a moment to take in everything that is happening. _I'm blessed. _You turn to Natara, who's sitting in the passenger seat, and grin at her. "You ready?" You ask, while pushing the 'start the engine' button.

**I have two questions for y'all this time :) 1; what's your favourite animal? If there's a clear favourite, it'll appear in the story! And 2; what do you think will be cuter; Mal&Natara playing with a cute little boy or a girl?**

**Oh, and since Natara's family is probably huuuuge, there's gonna be a few new characters.. So let me know if you'd like to be in my story lol. And if you want a bf/husband/whatever. Give me as much details as you like :p**

**Last but not least; I made the car black/red, because there was only 1 person who specifically mentioned a colour lol. But I felt like a Ferrari always should have a little Red, so I edited a pic to make it look like the car Mal's driving, it's on my tumblr (forever-teambreezy) if you'd like to see it! :)**

**Okay okay, this really is the last thing; How many of you thought that Mal&Natara were engaged & about to get married? Because BAZINGA! Fooled ya there :p mwhuahah, I'm soo evil XD**

**Review replies:**

**Claire: Hahah oops, sorry that I made you wait so long o_O**

**NaturallyFlaxen: Thank you! Hahah, like the way you think ,the 'Prius' idea was clever, but I guess they're not in SF anymore lol. **

**HopelessRomantic1994: Awww really? Thank you Jade! Right back at ya :) **

**Mozzi-girl: Oh hell yeah! Hahahahah! You're welcome, lol. Couldn't agree more, they're adorableee.**

**JustAnotherFreakyFangirl: BAM! Couldn't agree more with you! You were the only one who mentioned a colour lol. It's not a convertible though.. I wanted to do that at first but.. This car was so sexy o_O**

**CoDisgreat: Omg. I think I fell in love with that car. It's gorgeous :D You, my friend, are a genius!**

**Maltara101: Hahaha awww! *joins you* looool. Thank you for your ideas&review Tori :) sorry that the cars you mentioned aren't in the story…**

**NiekaWow: Thank you so much! :)**

**DizzyRedhead: Hahah, nope. Got you there ;) There aren't gonna be any Maltara babies yet :p**

**AKgirl2001: Thanks for the input! Sorry it's not a California, but it is an Ferrari? :D **


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi all!**

**Just a quick heads up, the favourite animal question came out tied between a tiger and a dog, so I choose a tiger instead.. **

**And I wanna thank each and every one of you for reading my story.. It seriously means the world to me. And a special thank you for all the people that review as well :)**

**Enjoy this chapter! **

**You are now Mal Fallon.**

You're awakened by a soft knock on the door. Everything was so peaceful that the soft knock sounds like someone fired a canon. It stays silent for a while, and you're starting to wonder if you might have imagined the knocking. But before you're able to come to a conclusion, the knocking continues. You let out a groan. _What time is it?_ You reach out for your watch, lying on the nightstand. _Ugh, only 9 AM?!_ You turn around in your bed and put your pillow over your head. Meanwhile you feel the bed shift underneath you, meaning that Natara has gotten out of the bed to open the door. You sleepily look up, and see how she quickly gathers some clothes from the ground and puts them on before she heads off towards the front door. As soon as she closes the door behind her, you let your head fall back onto the mattress, the pillow still covering your head. You close your eyes, even though you know that you're probably not going to sleep anymore. You listen closely to what's happening behind the door that Natara just closed, because you'd like to know who's disturbing you at this ungodly hour. Although you think that you already know the answer.

Your suspicion is confirmed when Natara opens the door and a perky voice reaches you all the way from the front door. "Finally, you're awake! Took you long enough."

Then there's Nataras calm, softer voice. "Ssssh, Mal is still asleep.."

"Now you're just giving me another reason to talk so loud. He needs to get his lazy ass out of bed! You know that everyone's coming today, right?"

"Neha, it's 9 AM. They won't be here for another few hours.. Besides, we have a jetlag. Just give us a break..."

"Don't start with me sis. You usually wake up at 7 AM. It's your own fault that you're tired." At this point you're about to press the pillow over your ears, because you want to catch some rest. Until you hear the following words leaving Neha's mouth. "Do you really think I don't know that the two of you were up until lord knows when, getting your freak on?"

You quickly sit up and pull yourself out of bed. _What? How could she possibly know that? Uh-oh, looks like being a creepy mind reader runs in the family… _

From the other room you hear Natara gasp. "How did y-"

But she's cut off by Neha's evil-sounding laugh. In the mean time you're sleepily looking around the room and see that the clothes of last night are scattered everywhere. _She wasn't wrong though.._

"I didn't.. But you just confirmed it! I had my suspicions when I found this lying on the ground outside... Couldn't even wait until you were inside, huh?"

Meanwhile you're quickly collecting the clothes of the floor and throw them on the bed. You grab your own stuff and quickly dress yourself. _Huh, guess she's not a creepy mind reader after all.. I wonder what she possibly could have found that made her jump to that conclusion. _You desperately look around for your shirt, but you can't seem to find it. So you walk over to the luxurious walk-in closet. When you came home last night, someone had already unpacked your suitcases and neatly put your clothes in the closet. Which, on the one side, you found pretty awesome, but on the other side it's also a little scary. You're not really comfortable with random people going through your stuff.

When you're halfway there, you're pulled out of your thoughts, because you hear Natara yelling. "Neha!" You raise your eyebrows and quickly make your way over to the front door. As you do so, the yelling continues. "Give me that shirt! …Neha! No, stop! Get back here! I'm not gonna– Uuugh."

_Heh! Guess I finally know where my shirt is.. _There's the sound of hastily footsteps and the front door smashing shut. You quickly walk up to the front door and open it. A huge smirk finds its way to your face when you see Natara triumphantly sitting on top of Neha. She's holding your shirt in one hand, and holding Neha's arms together with the other. You casually lean against the doorframe. "Do you want me to cuff her, or..?" you ask jokingly.

They both turn their heads to you. Neha sends you a desperate 'please-help-me' look, while Natara has a huge grin on her face. You stand up straight and make your way towards them. "Catch!" She throws your shirt towards you, which you catch with one hand.

You look at the object in your hand and smile. "Thanks, I was actually looking for this." Then you pull it over your head.

Natara finally releases Neha and you help them both up. "When will you learn not to run away from me?" Natara asks jokingly.

Neha's looking down at her elbow and rubs it as if she's hurt. "When you stop looking so scary when you're mad…" She mumbles.

Natara immediately opens her mouth to respond, but you cut in before she's able to say something she might regret. "Neha, if you don't mind me asking; why are you here?"

For some reason you don't like the mischievous grin that's decorating her face. "Mom asked me if I wanted to text you to ask if you'd join us for breakfast. But I figured that it'd be much nicer if I asked you in person." She explains.

You don't entirely believe her, but since you have no right reason to doubt her, you let it slide. "Oh, right… And when is breakfast?"

"In an hour. Same place as where we had dinner."

"How about we see you there then? We, uh, still need to freshen up a bit.."

She shrugs. "Sure, fine by me. I'll let mom know that the two of you will join us Oh, and bring your swimming clothes! I wanna go to the beach after breakfast." She says with a huge smile. Then she hops in her own car and drives into the direction of the main building. You wave her goodbye, until she's out of sight, and then head back inside.

The two of you brush your teeth and take a quick shower, the shower head was amazing by the way, before putting on some fresh clothes.

You're fairly excited to drive the Ferrari again, which is why your face drops when Natara snatches the keys from your hands. "My turn to drive.." You begin to open your mouth to protest, but she quickly leans in and gives you a kiss to shut you up. She pulls back a few millimeters, your lips are almost touching and it's honestly driving you crazy. "I think I earned it after all.." she says softly. She puts her hand on your chest and slowly moves it downwards.

You unwillingly think back to last night, and can't help but agree. "...Fine." you breathe.

Then she pulls away completely. She sends a sly wink in your direction and then turns around to walks away. When she does, she's teasingly swaying her hips. You can't seem to take your eyes off it. She looks back at you over her shoulder when she's halfway to the door and smirks when she sees that she has got you caught up. "Aren't you coming?"

You scrape your throat and run your hand through your hair. "Yeah I- Uh… Of course..."

After a quick drive, you finally walk into the main house. Your stomach is rumbling from hunger, which is why you immediately make your way towards the dining room. It's not hard to find, all you have to do is to follow your nose after all. You push the door to the room open and patiently wait until Natara walked inside before you step inside as well. The first thing you notice is that the dining table is covered with all kinds of delicious food. The second thing that you notice is that the chairs around the table are, except for the one where Neha's sitting at the end of the table, completely empty. You raise your eyebrows in surprise and turn to Neha. "Uuhm.. Where are your parents?"

"Oh.. I uh.." She coughs and looks down to her plate in shame. "..might've lied when they said that mom asked if the two of you wanted to join us for breakfast.. They already had breakfast when I arrived at your house..." she mumbles.

Meanwhile Natara takes a seat on Neha's right hand side, and you take a seat on her left hand side. Normally you'd probably be mad at Neha for lying, but you can't possibly be mad when there's so much deliciousness stacked on your plate. In fact, the food looks so good that you immediately dig in. Natara, on the other hand, seems pretty pissed off. "Why on earth did you get us out of bed this early then?"

You stay silent and observe both Natara and Neha, while taking some bites of your food. Neha uncomfortably shifts in her chair "Well.. I didn't..." she hesitates for a second. "I didn't want to eat my breakfast alone..."

You clearly see the look on Natara's face soften. She reaches over and takes the hand of her little sister. "Why didn't you say so in the first place? Why did you lie?" Meanwhile you decided to take a piece of bacon off of her plate, since she's pre-occupied with Neha. _She probably won't even miss it! _Just as you're about to pull your hand back, Natara slaps it. "Mal, don't even think about it! Put. It. Back." She says in her strict FBI voice.

You look at her with a shocked look on your face, like a little kid who just got caught while steeling cookies out of the cookie jar. Next to you Neha bursts out in laughter. You immediately put the piece of bacon back. "I'm sorry, babe."

About half an hour later, the three of you make your way to the beach. You step out of your car with your sunglasses on. You take a second to take in the beautiful view in front of you. It looks like absolute paradise. The beach spreads as far as your eyes can see. The amazing green/blue ocean seems to beg you to take a dive in it. Since the temperature is rapidly rising, you'd be happy to do so. The three of you walk towards the ocean, and set out some beach towels halfway on the beach. You take off your shirt, so that you're only wearing your swimming trunks, and empty your pockets. Neha's doing the same, but Natara is hesitant. Instead of taking her clothes off, she takes a seat on the towels and stares out to the ocean. Neha already runs off to the ocean, but stops and turns around when she notices that no one is following her. A worried look finds its way to her face as she sets eyes on her big sister. She's about to walk back when you catch her attention. You gesture to her to continue and take a seat next to Natara. Neha hesitate for a while, but then she runs off eventually. You look in front of you, trying to see whatever Natara is seeing. It stays silent for a while, until you clear your throat. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" you ask softly.

".. Yeah.. It is…"

Then you turn your head towards her. "Babe.. What's bothering you?"

There's a long silence again, and you're about to repeat your question when Natara sighs. "I was just thinking…" she starts. She still looks in front of her, avoiding your gaze. "We're probably going to spend a lot of hours on the beach, right?"

Not sure where this is going, you nod at her. "Yeah, probably.. Why?"

Her normally confident voice reduces to a whisper. "I don't think.." she stops, turns her head to you and looks you in the eye. "I'm not sure if I want everybody to see my scar.."

Your eyes immediately flash to her left shoulder, the place where she has a scar that she obtained the day that she shot Shawn to take down Darryl Glover. You gently take her hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. "Honey.." you start, carefully choosing your words. "The majority of the people who are coming to this island are your family. They won't care about the scar.. You know that they'd say anything that would hurt you. The other people probably won't care either…" She looks down to avoid eye contact, and her hair fall down. You reach out and tenderly stroke some hair out of her face. "You are beautiful just the way you are. Matter of fact, I think that the scar makes you even more beautiful, because it shows courage and braveness. It shows how dedicated you are to your work.. It shows that you're also beautiful from the inside…"

She looks up to you with a huge smile. "Thank you so much.." She throws herself on top of you, forcing you to lie down, and buries her head in your chest and gives you a big hug. "You always know what to say, don't you?"

You laugh because she seems happy again, and wrap your arms around her to pull her close. "I do my best… So how about we go and join Neha? I could use some cooling-off.."

She grins at you. "Sounds like a plan!" She gets up and lends you a hand. Then she starts to empty her pockets and begins to undress. You wait a few seconds and look at the ocean. As soon as you set eyes on it, you're starting to get impatient. You look over at Natara, who just took off her short pants.

"Could you hurry up? The heat is slowly killing me over here…" you say half jokingly.

"I'll see what I can do.." she says with a grin. Then she teasingly starts to undress even slower. You honestly think that you can't wait a second longer to dive into that water, so you pick Natara up, throw her over your shoulders and run towards the ocean.

"AAAAH! Mal! Put me down! I'm serious!" she yells, but you clearly hear her laughter. She's trying her best to wrestle herself out of your grip, but you have a tight grip on her and don't plan on letting go.

"Not gonna happen babe!" you yell back. By now you've finally reached the ocean.

At this point Natara starts to panic a little. "Malachi Charles Fallon, I am not joking! Put me down right now!" she tries once again, but you don't listen. You run into the ocean at full speed, until your deep enough to swim, and let yourself fall in the water, pulling Natara with you.

Natara comes up for air at the exact same moment as you are. Luckily she doesn't seem mad at all. In fact, she has a huge smile on her face. She swims over to you and wraps her arms around your neck. "Don't you _ever_ do that again.." she says jokingly.

You flash her a charming smile. "Not even wh-" you start, but you get interrupted by Neha splashing water over the two of you. One look to Natara is enough to establish that you're gonna work together to get back at Neha.

*A few hours later*

You're back on the beach. Neha is sunbathing, next to her lies Natara, who's softly stroking your hair. You've put your head on her lap and are looking at the gorgeous view in front of you. The conversation has died out, but not because of lack of conversation topics. It's simply because the three of you enjoy the last moments of peaceful silence, because once the rest of the family arrives, there probably won't be any silence for a while. All of a sudden you notice a little black dot in the sky. You point it out to Neha and Natara, who immediately get enthusiastic.

Neha jumps up and starts yelling. "That's the first plane!"

Both Natara and you laugh at her reaction. You get up as well and extend a helping hand to Natara.

"Hurry! They are coming, can't you hear the plane?"

"We're coming, Neha! Relax, they still need to land the plane." Natara says calmly, while grabbing the rest of her stuff. You all put the rest of your now dry clothes on and quickly head to the small airport on the island. It doesn't take long before you meet up with Raj and Anita. You all exchange some small talk while you're waiting for the first airplane to arrive. It doesn't take long before the plane lands. You unwillingly tense up a bit, because you realize how big this moment is. Natara seems to notice, because she gently takes your hand as a sign of support. You flash her a thankful smile. Meanwhile the first guests are starting to exit the plane. You look over to Raj, Anita, Neha and Natara and see that they're all smiling widely. They look so excited to see the rest of their family again, that this makes you smile as well. You feel so happy for them that you're not even worried about the possibility that those people might not even like you.

There's an adorable-sounding, high-pitched, girly voice that reaches your ears. "Natawa! Natawaaa!" the voice screams happily. You look around to find the source of the sound, and smile when you see a little girl, probably three years old, running towards Natara and you. As she comes closer you notice that she has long, silky brown hair, and beautiful big, hazel eyes. She's holding a stuffed animal that looks like a tiger under her arm. Behind her is a woman who's trying to catch up to her, but the little girl zigzags between Raj and Anita with ease and the woman, whom you assume to be the mother, can't keep up. She is only a few steps away from the two of you, when she finally notices you and stops in her track. This enables the woman to finally catch up with her. She gently takes the girls small hand. That's when she notices Natara and you. She smiles and walks over to you, bringing the little girl with her, whether she wants to or not. "Natara, it is great to see you again!" she says as she gives her three kisses on the cheeks and pulls her into a hug. Then she turns to you. "And you must be Mal, right?" She asks with a friendly smile.

Before you can formulate an answer, she gives you three kisses on your cheeks as well. You're enormously surprised by the sudden action and you can't help but blush. "Y-yes, that's right." you say, trying your best to re-gain your composure.

"My name's Danieka. I'm a niece of Natara, but you probably already knew that… Anyway, it's nice to m-"

Suddenly there is the sound a child crying their lungs out. Danieka quickly turns around and sighs. "Excuse me, it looks like my baby boy is crying. I will be right back. Could you please watch her for a second?" she asks while gesturing to the little girl. Then she turns around on her heels and walks away without waiting for an answer.

There's a short, awkward silence.

**You are now Natara Williams.**

Mal crouches so that he's on the same height. "Hey princess. My name is Mal. What's your name?"

She shyly clings to your leg and hides behind it. Mal shortly looks up to you, silently asking you for help with his eyes, before looking back at her. You pry her arms off your leg and get down on her level as well. "It's okay, tell him what your name is." You say, trying to reassure her.

She hesitates for a second. "M-my name is Vanessa." She says softly, while looking at the ground.

"That's a dangerous looking tiger you have there.. Is it a boy or a girl?"

She looks to you for help, unsure if she should answer him. You flash her a reassuring smile. "Go on, you can tell him."

She nods at you, and then turns back to Mal. "It is a boy.."

"Oh yeah, I can see that now!" he says with a grin. "What is his na-" He stops himself mid-sentence and turns to the Tiger. "What is your name?"

Vanessa seems to loosen up towards Mal, now that the conversation is about her favourite stuffed animal. "It's Sammie." She says proudly.

Mal gently takes the paw of the stuffed animal and shakes it. "Hi Sammie. It's nice to meet you. I'm Mal. Would you like to be my buddy?" he asks with a huge smile on his face.

This makes Vanessa giggle. And, even though you'd never admit it, it made your heart melt from adorableness overload. Vanessa mimics a deep, or at least as deep as her voice can get, voice when she answers for Sammie. "Yes I would!"

Mal fakes a scowl when she does. "Hey, that's not how Sammie talks!"

Vanessa shoots him a confused look. "It's not..?"

He shakes his head. "Nope, it isn't! Don't you know what kind of sound a tiger makes?"

She frowns while she takes a second to think it through. "Uuhm.." Then she sighs in defeat. "No, I don't.."

"Nat? Do you know what kind of sound a tiger makes?"

"Yes.. And I'm sure that you know this as well, honey." you say to Vanessa. She looks up to you with a pout and shakes her head. "They say 'rawrrr', remember?"

Her face lights up in recognition. "Yeahh! Raaawwww!" she says, trying to repeat what you said. Both you and Mal laugh at her cuteness.

**Aight, I can only come up with one question.. What's your favourite alcoholic drink? Let me know!**

**Review replies:**

**Danielle: Hahah yeah me too! I think he's a real softie :p Hahaha yeah they're adorable aren't they? :D and a lil bit naughty as well hahaha! Gotta love it :D Thanks for reviewing!**

**Guest (Hannah): Thank you so much! You don't know how much that means to me..**

**HopelessRomantic1994: Omg, thank you Jade :O That really means a lot! Hahaha Raj is a boss!**

**Maltara101: Hahah yes, the one and only QOMF! ;) Hahaha yeah Kai is a goof :D **

**NaturallyFlaxen: Hahahah glad I made you laugh :D Loool, hope not, since that was what I meant.. Did you notice the double meaning behind 'shower head' in this chapter? asgdfkldah I'm so dirty-minded, whoops!**

**CoDisgreat: btw, I love your name! Hahahah! Yeah it's freakin' gorgeous!**

**Mozzi-girl: Yeahhh you are :D Thank you very much QOMF! :D The car really is WOW huh?! I think I'm in love with it…. **

**Bugreid: Omg aaaawwwww, thank you! That means so much to me :o :D Heh, I love tigers as well! **

**DizzyRedhead: Hahaha, sorry! No I'm lying, I'm not really sorry since I did that on purpose XD Hahahah yeah Kai's awesome! Gotta love that dude!**

**NiekaWow: Heh, hope you don't mind I gave you a kid xD What do you want your husband to be called? :D**

**Cool22hd: Aww thank you! Really? I can only hope for so much.. But I have to say that I have some pretty cool things planned :p Hahahha I'll see what I can do!**

**Guest: haha aight, cool :) Your wish is my command!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay, okay, I know my update-frequency is sucking atm. But hey, school just started and I'm actually getting into my writer-zone again! Bare with me, though! I know this chapter is shorter than usually, but is just the first part of the chapter. See, I've written the beginning, and the ending, but I'm kind of struggling with the middle. So I decided to cut it in half, to give you guys a (long overdue) update. I'll probably upload the other part later tonight, or tomorrow! :) I'll do the review replies then as well, cuz I wanna watch the VMA's and it's starting like… right about now.**

**Enjoy this (short) chapter!**

**You are now Natara Mansingh.**

You're sitting on the huge, comfortable couch in an enormous room that is supposed to pass as a living room. It's probably twice the size of a normal living room. Normally you would've scolded your dad for building a house with such an unnecessary massive room, but in this case it was absolutely necessary, because if it wasn't this huge your family never would've been able to fit in one room. After the arrival of Danieka and her family, the rest of the planes filled with your relatives arrived quickly after each other. The small airport was soon filled with people, thus making it impossible for incoming planes to land. That is why everyone who already arrived made their way to the living room. The room, which usually looks gigantic because it's so open, is almost fully packed with relatives. Yet more and more people keep arriving. You look around the room and study the faces of your relatives and can't help but smile when you see nothing but happy faces. Everyone is greeting each other, either by hugging, giving each other three kisses on the cheek or a combination of both. Laughter fills the room and warms your heart. Being re-united with your family makes you incredibly happy. Even though the years have passed, it's almost just like old times. Except now, you have little nieces and nephews who have taken the place of you as the cute, little children. You unwillingly start to reminisce about the first wedding you've attended in your life. You clearly remember how you and your nieces clogged all the toilets by stuffing them with rolls of toilet paper. _Our parents had their hands full with us.. We were a bunch of naughty children. And now look at us.. We're all grown up now. Some of us are married. Some of us even have children themselves. I wonder if our children are going to be just as naughty if we used to be. If they are, we're in for a rough time._

You're currently half engaged in a conversation with your cousin Nikki and her husband Zac, who are sitting on either side of you. They just finished telling you a lovely story about their honeymoon and even showed you a few beautiful pictures. If you were honest with yourself, you were kind of jealous of Nikki, since she is a few years younger than you, yet she is already happily married. _I don't want things to go too fast with Mal, but I can't help but feel like I'm missing out. My younger niece is able to talk about her perfect married life, but Mal and I haven't even discussed marriage.. _Suddenly Nikki asks you if you're currently in a relationship. You can't help but smile like crazy when you confirm it. You and Mal got separated in all the family-craziness, which is why you have search the room for Mal to point him out to Nikki and Zac. When you finally spot him, he's standing on the other side of the room with a few aunts and nieces who are surrounding him. He honestly has the cutest expression ever on his face. He looks like he's genuinely enjoying himself, yet he looks so lost at the same time. Your family is pulling him into bear hugs and giving him kisses on the cheeks, and he doesn't know what to do with himself because of this. He looks almost stunned, and has a cute blush on his face as he awkwardly pats everyone on the back when they hug him. You silently observe him for a while, with a big smile on your face. You're totally oblivious to the fact that Nikki is asking you several questions, because you're too busy with watching how Mal is struggling to pronounce everyone's names right. Nevertheless he has a huge smile on his face. All of a sudden Nikki snaps her fingers in front of your face, making you snap out of your thoughts. You let out a soft shriek when she does so, thus gaining the attention of a few people around you. "What was that for?" you ask, while playfully slapping her arm.

Her face lights up when she sees that she finally has your attention again. "I was asking you if the guy you were practically drooling over is your boyfriend." she asks teasingly.

A light blush decorates your face. Now knowing how to respond to that, you look down at your hands to avoid her gaze. "I uh.." you stutter. You take a second to collect yourself and then look back to Nikki. "Yes, that's the one." you exclaim proudly. "And I wasn't really drooling." you quickly add. _Or was I...? _

She raises her eyebrows at you and she's about to respond when the doors to the room open again. Everyone in the room goes, surprisingly, silent when the soon-to-be-bride, Molly, walks in. She's followed by your parents, Neha, the rest of her family and a, to you unknown, woman. Molly looks a lot older than you remember her. She looks more mature now. She has a huge smile on her face that, in a way, almost makes her look radiant. A split-second later almost everyone in the room rushes towards her to congratulate her. Nikki and Zac look at each other with huge grins on their faces, because they know firsthand how it feels when you suddenly become the centre of attention simply because you're getting married. "Shall we say 'hi' as well?" Zac asks, while standing up already.

Nikki follows his lead. "Yeah, let's go." And they start to make their way towards Molly. Nikki briefly looks back, silently asking you if you're coming.

You get up as well and shake your head at her. "You two go ahead, I'll join you later. I have a boyfriend to save..." you say, while pointing to Mal, who's getting dragged towards Molly by another niece of you, Sarah. He has a look on his face that tells you that he has no idea what's going on right now. So instead of heading towards Molly like almost everyone else, you walk over to Mal and Sarah to intercept them. His face lights up when he sees you approaching and he immediately stops in his tracks. Sarah looks back with a puzzled look on her face when she notices that Mal stopped following her. Then her eyes fall on you, and she pushes past him to run up to you to give you a big hug. You gratefully hug her back, since you haven't seen her for ages. The three of you then make your way over to Molly, while exchanging some small talk. It doesn't take long before you reach the mass of people surrounding Molly. Your eyes quickly dart to Mal, who looks relieved to have you by his side again. When he notices that you're looking at him, he flashes you a thankful smile, which you gladly return. The family-greeting continues, and time seriously flies by.

After a while everyone said hello to everyone, and the large crowd splits into two. Your uncles and aunts, joined by your parents, have gathered on the couches at one side of the room. Meanwhile you, Mal, Neha and all your nieces and nephews have gathered on the other side of the room. You properly introduce Mal to Molly, and the two of them immediately hit it off and start talking about random stuff. You let them be, and introduce yourself to the woman standing next to Molly. She looks just as uncomfortable as Mal looked not so long ago. Nevertheless she introduces herself as Tori. She tells you that she lived next to Molly while growing up. Now that Molly is getting married, it's only logical that she'll be Molly's maid of honor, since they've been best friends for as long as they can remember.

Time passes, and you mingle a little more with the guests. Somehow you lose Mal in the crowd again, but when you set eyes on him he seems to enjoy himself. You catch up with your family, until your father asks for the attention in the room and announces that dinner is being served outside on the terrace. With that being said, everyone starts to make to the terrace.

You step out on the terrace as well, and take a moment to observe your surroundings. The terrace is covered with several huge dinner tables, which is currently being occupied by your family. There are waiters standing outside, patiently waiting until everyone has taken their seat. The terrace itself is located at the very edge of the beach. All you had to do is walk down the stone steps, and you'd set foot on the beach already. Even though the sun hasn't set yet, the terrace is decorated with tiki torches. You start to make your way to one of the table, when a soft, warm hand wraps itself around yours. You don't even have to look up to know whose hand it is. _Mal.. _"Am I glad that I found you again.. Don't get me wrong. I love your family. They are very nice and enormously friendly. But they ask SO much at the same time. I've barely answered the first question when they're already asking a second one.." he says softly, making sure that no one hears him.

You give his hand a soft, yet reassuring squeeze. "I'm sorry, I should've warned you about that… They are very curious. You should see it as a good thing though. If they really ask you so much that kind of means that they've already accepted you as a family member. If they hadn't, they wouldn't care about you.."

**Oh, if you're not in this chapter yet, you'll probably get introduced later on! I just want everyone to have a little moment with either Mal or Natara :) Just a heads up, there's gonna be loads of Maltara in the next chapter!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Welp, I added way more to this chapter than I planned to.. Ah well! FISH.**

**Hawt damn, you guys.. I'm getting so many reviews... They make me feel all fuzzy inside and I can't stop smiling! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! Thank you for taking the time to read (and review).. I love each and every one of you. **

**Enjoy this chapter! :D**

**You are now Mal Fallon.**

Dinner, which was pretty damn amazing by the way, is over. The sun is currently setting, thus creating a very beautiful scenery. The tables have been removed to create a makeshift dance floor. There's a 5-man band, trying their best to entertain the guests. Although it's mostly the older people who are occupying the dance floor at the moment. The children have all gone to bed. The young-adults, or at least the ones who are left behind since most of them left because they had jetlag issues, stand at the side of the dance floor. They're all enjoying a drink or two. They make sure that they stop there, because they don't want to go all out when the older generation is there to observe them. So they are having all kinds of random conversations instead.

Somehow you got yourself in a conversation with Raj, which is quickly going down the awkward-road. He brought up the wedding, and you knew where this conversation was going before he brought it up. Your suspicions were confirmed when he puts his hand on your shoulder and pulls you a little closer. "Now I don't mean to pry, but I couldn't help but notice that Natara's left ring finger is still missing a ring.. Are you not planning on marrying my daughter?"

You awkwardly shift your weight from one leg to another. Not knowing what to say, you scrape your throat before you answer, trying to buy yourself some time. "Yes I am. I.." Your mind flashes to the jewellers box that you've hidden from Natara. The jewellers box that Raj personally gave to you, containing the engagement ring that has been passed on from generation to generation in his family. "I just haven't found the right time yet.." As the words leave your mouth, you realize what a weak excuse it really is.

From the look that Raj gives you, you know that he's thinking exactly the same thing. But instead of commenting on it, he pats your shoulder. "I am very glad to hear that." And then he walks away. Your eyes follow him, until he disappears in the crowd. You let out a deep breath, that you didn't realize you were holding. Then turn on your heels and head to the bar. _I could really use a drink right about now…_ You just ordered a beer, when Natara joins your side and orders one as well. She gives you a quick kiss on your cheek and slips her hand into yours. "So… I saw you talking with my dad.. Everything okay?"

You take the two beers from the bartender and hand one to her. "Yeah.. We were just, uh, discussing the wedding and stuff." You say, only half truthfully.

"Oh.. Okay…" You instantly know that she's not buying it, which is why you're glad that she doesn't ask further. Your mind is racing to think of another subject to talk about, when you faintly hear someone calling your name. But it's so soft that you're not sure if it really happened or not. It stays silent for a while, so you decide not to pay attention to it. Until you hear it again. "Pssst, Mal!" You confusingly look around, looking for the source of the sound.

Natara looks strangely at you. "What's wrong sweetie?"

"Nothing, I just thought I hea-" you start, but you abruptly stop when you hear mysterious the sound again.

"Pssssst! Natara! Mal! Over here!" You look around once more, and then you notice Neha standing almost out of view, waving at you to come over.

You quickly glance at Natara, and see that she has noticed it as well. You raise your eyebrows at her, silently asking if you should go over there. She shrugs at you, as if saying 'why not?'. So you walk over to Neha, bringing Natara with you.

As soon as you're in hearing distance, Natara demands answers. "Neha, what on earth are y-"

But Neha interrupts her. "Ssssstt. Just follow me!" Then she turns around and walks down the stone stairs, towards the beach. She cautiously looks over her shoulder, partly to check if you're actually following her, but also to check if anybody else is following the three of you.

As soon as you're out of hearing distance of the party, Natara continues her questioning. "What is this all about?"

Neha faces the two of you, and shows off a very sly grin. "Well, since daddy is there, no one parties like they're supposed to! You know that this party is supposed to be _fun_. Everyone is supposed to go all out, because this is the last day before the groom comes and he takes the bride away from us! We have to enjoy it to the max! But everyone's so intimidated by daddy that they barely dare to touch a glass containing something alcoholic. So that's why I have decided to sneak some bottles away, and throw my own party! Feel honoured, because you two are now officially invited."

Natara shoots her a disapproving look. "Dad's not going to be happy when he finds out about this.."

"Relaaax sis, he's not gonna find out! For all he knows, we just went to bed."

A sudden thought occurs to you. "Wait a second… Does that mean that everyone who said they were going to bed early are actually –"

"At the party? Hell yeah!" Neha exclaims happily.

In the mean time you've almost reached a 'small' house at the beach, that you recognize at Neha's temporary place. You can hear the music blasting from quite some metres away, making you smile. _If there's anyone who knows how to throw a good party, it's Neha! _As the three of you walk in, you notice how packed it is. Everyone turns around to face you. When they see who just walked in, they smile and shout all kinds of greetings. You raise your beer bottle at them and say hi back, then all the conversations continue. There's laughter all over the place. People are dancing in the middle of the room. You can see that most of them are already very tipsy, since there's some serious grinding going on.

Neha takes you and Natara by the arm and pulls you towards the bar. She impatiently takes your beer bottles. You open your mouth to protest, but Neha shoots you a 'don't-you-dare' look, so you quickly shut up. "These are not gonna cut it, you guys." She explains as she throws them away. She then grabs three red cups, and starts to search for something. "You'll need something that's a lot stronger. Like… This!" She grabs a half-full bottle of patrone, which makes you wonder where the other half has gone to, and expertly pours a small layer of it in every cup. You turn to Natara, and raise your eyebrows at her while you nod to Neha, but she just shrugs at you. Meanwhile Neha hands both you and Natara a cup and a slice of lime.

Natara, surprisingly, grins at you. "Bottums up!" she says, and she quickly takes the shot of tequila, followed by a bite in the slice of lime. Both you and Neha do exactly the same, which results in the three of you pulling funny faces because of the taste at the same time.

Neha is the first to recover. "Whooo! Now come on, let's paaarty and buuuullshit! Because THAT'S JUST HOW WE DO!" she yells.

All around the room, people start to cheer and raise their glasses. The music gets even louder, and strangely the combination of liquor and the bassline of the music gets you right into your zone. You don't even mind that Natara takes your hand and drags you to the dance floor..

_*A few hours later*_

Somewhere during the party, a group of women walked out of the house, claiming that they were going to take a walk on the beach. Among those women were Natara and Neha. Everyone was enormously tipsy already. Yet they decided that it would be fun to take two bottles with them. You stayed at the house, together with all the other people who stayed behind. Even though Natara asked you to come with her, you declined, because you wanted her to have some girl-time.

When the women walk back inside again, it's seen as a sign that the party is over, since it's already quite late. Even though you are quite tipsy as well, you still notice that Neha and Natara are missing. So you walk up to Molly and ask her where they are. She kinda explains where they are by pointing to the door leading to the beach. You thank her and walk through the door. You widely smile when you notice Natara and Neha walking towards you, with their arms wrapped around each others shoulders. You're not really sure who's supporting who. When they get closer, you're surprised that it's actually Neha who's supporting Natara, instead of the other way around. Natara is very giggly and fumbling with something that looks like a scarf.

You can't help but laugh at her. Then you turn to Neha. "What happened with Natara?"

She has a huge smile on her face as well. "I think she's had one too many…"

You glance over to Natara, who can barely stand up on her own. "More like five too many.." You add. Then you gently take her hand and try to pull her along. "Come on babe, let's go home and get you to bed."

This causes her to giggle uncontrollably. "Bed? Hmm.. Okay! Whatever you want, handsome." Then she looks at Neha and points at you while 'secretly' mouthing 'Oh my god, he is soooo sexy!'. Then she waves at Neha and clings on your arm, trying her best not to fall while walking.

You've only taken a few steps when notice that she can barely walk in a straight line, so you stop and hopelessly look back to Neha. "This is not gonna work, is it?"

Neha shoots you an enormously amused look. "Nope, I think you have to carry her if you want to get her home.." she suggests.

"That's what I was afraid for.." you mumble to yourself. Then you turn to Natara. "Baby?"

"Yes?" She swings her arms around your neck and pulls you into kissing distance. "What's up sexy?" she says, trying her best to be seductive. Even though she's so intoxicated that she's barely able to stand on her own, it still works. That's why you can't help but lean in and give her a short, soft kiss on her lips. When you pull back, she barely lets you go. She obviously wants so much more than just a short kiss. But you manage to wrestle yourself out of her grip. She looks at you with one of the most adorable sad-faces ever. "You are mean.."

You chuckle. "And you, my dear, are drunk."

She sticks her tongue out to you. "Am not."

You're about to retort, but then realize that having a discussion with a drunk person is fairly useless. "I'm not even having this discussion with you… Now come on, hop on my back so I can get us home."

She starts to giggle again, which you don't mind at first. You let her be for a while, until you start to lose your patience. "Okay… What's so funny?" you ask impatiently.

She looks up to you, and bursts into laughter again. You helplessly look to Neha, who's filming Natara with her phone. When she sees you looking she flashes you a very mischievous grin. "She's never ever going to hear the end of this!" she exclaims happily.

"Make sure you send that video to me as well" you say with a grin. Then you turn around and lower yourself a bit to make it easy for Natara to get on your back. "Come on, let's go Nat." She surprisingly obeys you and wraps her arms around you and rests her head on top of yours, while you support her legs. She clings at you, as if she's giving you a tight hug from behind. You turn to Neha one last time. "Thanks for organizing this awesome party, and bringing Natara safe back.."

"Don't mention it. I do my part, you do your part! See you tomorrow, Mal. Sleep tight.." She waves at you, and starts to walk back to her home.

"Sleep tight." Then you make your way home as well. After a few steps you regret taking the route via the beach, because you're having trouble walking in a straight line as well. You try to focus as much as you can, but Natara's cuteness distracts you.

She gives you a kiss on the head. "I love youuu." she softly says.

"I love you too, babe." You respond with a smile.

She roughly pulls your hair, forcing you to look up to her. She has a cute little frown on her face. "No, no, no. You don't understand. I meant that I loooooooove you." She says, trying to explain herself. Then she lets you go again.

"That's sweet of y-"

But she cuts you off when she starts to whisper in your ear. "You are so hot and sexy.." You can't help but laugh, and you open your mouth to respond, when she starts talking again. "You are sweet and charming and funny and soooo handsome… Have I told you that I loooove you?"

You chuckle at her. "You might have mentioned it once or twice.."

"Really? Well, I really do. Love you, I mean. I really do love you." She states.

"I love you more.." you tease her.

As soon as those words leave your mouth, you immediately regret it. _Why am I even provoking a drunk person..? _Natara gasps loudly and slaps your shoulder. "No. You. Don't." she says in a serious tone, or at least as serious as she can sound right now, while continuing to slap you.

You try to dodge her slaps and chuckle at her reaction, which seems to be a huge mistake, because it frustrates her even more. "Mal! Stop laughing! I mean it!" she yells, clearly frustrated. You try your best not to provoke her anymore, but the absurdity of the situation continues to make you laugh. Eventually she gets so pissed of that she decides to slap you with both hands, which wouldn't have been a problem if she weren't swaying like crazy, because the liquor messed with her balance.

And even though you're trying your best to stabilize yourself, you're still on the verge of losing your balance, simply because her movements are too unpredictable. "Nat, honey, please calm down.." you say desperately.

She's either ignoring you, or she doesn't hear you over her own commotion, but she doesn't respond to you. Even worse, she simply continues trying to slap you with both hands. "You can't love me more than I love you. That is imposs-"

You quickly interrupt her, trying to make things right again. "I was just joki-" But at that very moment you lose your balance and fall face first into the sand. The

Before you have time to get up, Natara already starts to panic. "Oh no, Mal! Please don't be dead!" She shakes your shoulders, trying to get a reaction from you, but you stay still. _What? Dead? Why would she think that I'm dead..? Heh, let's play along for a second and see where this goes! _Her voice gets softer and sadder by the second. _If she wouldn't have been so drunk, I never would've teased her like this. But right now she probably won't even remember it in the morning, so why not?_ "Nooo, come back to life! I'll do anything for you, I swear. Just please come back… You can love me more than I love you, if that's what it takes to bring you back to me…"

Pleased with what she's saying, you roll around to face her. "Really?" you ask her with a grin. You watch how her eyes widen. She takes a quick deep breath and is about to scream at the top of her lungs, so you quickly put your hand over her mouth and gently push her down on the sand. "Relax babe, it's just me.."

She scowls at you and roughly pushes you away. "You meanie!"

"Oh, so now I'm a meanie? You were a meanie when you were rocking back and forth, which caused us to fall into the sand in the first place!"

She lets out an enormously exaggerated huff. "Well you were a meanie when you said that you love me more than I lo-"

You interrupt her by positioning yourself above her, supporting yourself on your arms on either side of her. Surprised, she stops talking and shoots you a quizzical look. She's halfway asking you what you're doing when you lean down and give her a soft kiss to make her shut up. She's stunned for a second, just a second, and then she starts to kiss back with all that she has. She roughly grabs your face with both hands and pulls you in for a very passionate kiss, which, even though you're slightly surprised, you honestly don't mind. One of her hands finds its way to the back of your head, and prevents you from pulling away. Then the fingertips of her other hand slowly slide down your back, sending shivers down your spine. You unwillingly arch your back, trying to get away from the ticklish feeling, thus pressing your body against hers. You feel how her lips form a smile against yours. When her hand finally reaches the bottom of your shirt, she slips her hand underneath it. All the while she doesn't break the passionate kiss the two of you are sharing. She spreads her fingers when she teasingly slides her hands up, as if she's trying to touch as much of your bare skin as possible. She doesn't stop until her hand reaches your shoulder blades, which is why your shirt gets half pulled up. When her hands finally reach their destination, she pulls you even closer. The sensation of her bare skin against yours has got you feeling for more, so you break the kiss and lovingly place kisses down her neck. A soft moan escapes her lips when you take your time to stop at certain sensitive spots and softly suck on them. She approvingly runs her hand through your hair. You continue to kiss down, until you reach the edge of her shirt. Meanwhile she has wrapped her legs around your waist, pressing your bodies even more against each other. Disappointed by the sudden stop of bare skin to kiss, you grab her t-shirt and bikini strap, and roughly pull it to the side, thus exposing her shoulder. You place a few teasingly soft kisses on her shoulder. You swiftly look up to her, and see her looking down at you with nothing but lust in her eyes. There's a loud gasp for air, when you suddenly lick from her shoulder to her neck. You take a second to find the most sensitive spot in her neck, and lovingly bite that exact spot. That seems to be too much for her, because she lets out a loud moan. You let go of her skin, and take a second to smirk at her reaction. You lean down to kiss her again, when she unexpectedly pushes you away. She roughly pulls your t-shirt over your head, pushes you next to her, and then she climbs on top of you. She looks you straight in the eye, with a naughty smile on her face and delicately places her hands on your now bare chest. She bites her lip as she slowly slides her hands down, never breaking the eye contact. When her hands reach the top of your pants, they quickly move to your chest again. She then leans down and presses her body against yours. "It's my turn now.." she teasingly whispers in your ear. You can't stop the enormous smile that makes its way to your face when you hear those words. Meanwhile she starts to kiss, lick and suck all those sensitive places down your neck, to your shoulders, over your chest, down to your abs.

Somehow, your conscience starts to kick in right that moment. You groan, yet you extend your hand to interrupt Natara. "Baby… Stop. We can't do this."

She looks up to you with a genuine confused look on her face. "What? Why not?"

"Because.." It takes a while before you finally find the right words. "..You are heavily intoxicated." You argue.

Natara doesn't seem fazed by your argument. "..So? It's not like you're taking advantage of a poor drunk girl.." She places another soft kiss on one of your abs, while looking up to you. "You're my boyfriend after all…" she says with a mischievous grin. She moves down another inch, and teasingly licks that spot. Right then and there, you know you're sold.

You flash her a grin back. "That may be, but I'd rather you remember all the amazing things I'll d-" At that very moment she starts to continue her line of kisses, which is why you immediately shut up. You clench your jaw, mentally preparing yourself to stop any sounds of pleasure that you know will try to leave your mouth in a few minutes.

**Review replies: **

**Maltara101: Heh, you're in the previous chapter! ;)**

**NaturallyFlaxen: Hahaha nopee, it was definitely meant in a dirty way! ;) It'd be pretty random if he'd comment on the bathroom appliance, since I don't think that he's the type of guys who takes the time to appreciate things like that xD Aww thank you! :D**

**Hahahah really? What made you think that? ;) xD And thanks again! :D**

**Mozzi-girl: Heh! There's gonna be some more cuteness overload :D (looool, you are more than welcome Molly xD)**

**Thank you QOMF! Hell yeah! Haaa! 'can't wait for the Maltara'? You knew what was coming… I see you and your Rated M Maltara needs Molly ;)**

**HopelessRomantic1994: Aww thank you Jade! Omg yeah, imagine the adorableness when they have their own little Maltara kids asdghjk. Hahah yeah I thought I should include it.. Even though she's a fancy FBI profiler, she's still a woman, and woman have insecurities.. I feel like she should be comfortable enough with Mal to talk about them!**

**Heh, I'm glad you didn't mind :D Did you enjoy the VMA's? I kinda stopped watching after Nicki Minaj won her award.. I'd seen the intro, my baby won his award and hugged Rita Ora, and I saw Frank Ocean's performance. That was all I was interested in tbh :')**

**DizzyRedhead: Thank. You. I continued continued continued continued hahahha. **

**Was I foreshadowing? Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't… Hah! Let's just put it this way; I'm actually writing this whole damn story for one particular, very cute and adorable Maltara scene that has yet to come ;)**

**Guest: Thank you! :) Maltara FTW!**

**CoDisgreat: Haha aww thanks! :) Heh, made them drink beer!**

**NiekaWow: Aww, thank you Danieka :) I'll figure something out! Hahahh uhhm.. Well you're the kid of a brother/sister from Raj. That makes you Natara's niece, right? o_O Or is it called differently? Lmfaoo idk! That's how we call it here xD**

**Akgirl2001/akgal2001: Hahaha awww thank you! And don't worry about it :p You are awesome as well! And I'm def. gonna check it out. I'll include you in the future chapters! :)**

**Maltararox21: Hahahah ;) I see what you did there! Don't worry, I'll include you as well :D Yeahh, they're awesome! Hahahah I don't think that Natara's family has a ship name for them :') I might get Kai to do that though ;) Thank you! (Hahahah! Yesss to both of them!)**

**Bugreid: Hahahah! Gotta love him ;) Thank you!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey everyone, **

**I am so, so sorry for the delay.. It's just.. I'm enormously busy with school, kinda trying my best to find a little balance in my life atm xD Hope y'all can forgive me. I feel like I'm letting y'all down by not updating… And it's not like I don't have any time to update, because I sure have time to write a little once in a while. But when I do have time I'm usually very tired, and I don't want to write when I'm half asleep, because I feel like that's unfair to you. You deserve the best I can give.. It's just that I can't give it right now XD So bare with me for a while.. **

**Oh, quick shout out to Rita Ora (I know she ain't gon' read this, but Imma do it anyway haaa) for inspiring both this, and (partly) the previous chapter with her song 'How We Do'. **

**Enjoy this chapter!**

**You are now Natara Mansingh.**

… _standing on top of a table, singing your heart out …. Taking a walk on the beach …. Discussing things with Neha .. Pulling Mal's shirt over his head … Mal carrying you to bed in bridal style …_

It all feels like some sort of weird, yet realistic dream. You feel yourself waking up. It's like you're slowly being pulled back into reality. Once you're able to think again, you find yourself hoping that it was all a dream. A very, very strange dream. Sadly, the pounding headache you're currently having strongly disagrees. On top of that, your mouth and throat feel incredibly dry, like you haven't had a drink for days. _Although, if my memory is correct, I have actually had way too much drinks yesterday... How ironic. _Since you're craving for a glass of water to coach your throat, you get out of bed as quietly as you can, sneaking out from under Mal's arm without waking him up. As you do so, you feel that all your muscles are aching from all the effort you put in last night. You try to ignore it and struggle to crawl out of bed. To your surprise you're wearing the same shirt Mal was wearing yesterday. You choose not to pay attention to it, and decide to do something about your awfully painful muscles. So you clench your jaw while you stretch out as much as possible, trying to get your muscles to loosen up a bit. Then you continue to do your usual morning stretch ritual. A few moments pass and eventually you finish up and head towards the bathroom. The first thing you do is drink a glass of water to sooth your throat. Your headache's still killing you, so you make a mental note to yourself to take an aspirin after you've had breakfast. Trying to relieve the pain, you massage your temples. It helps a bit, but not that much. So after a while you simply give up, and make your way back to the bedroom.

You stumble up to the window and open the curtains to blinding lights. Irritated by the sunlight, you quickly squeeze your eyes shut until they are finally adjusted to the sudden change of light. Behind you, Mal lets out a groan when the sunlight hits his eyes. You hear him shift underneath the sheets. So you look back at him, and see that he's lying on his back. He's turning his head away from where you're standing, desperately trying to get away from the light. The sheet is only covering the bottom half of his body, thus revealing his perfectly ripped muscles. That's not what you're focussing on though. The thing that caught your eyes it the fact that he has his arms tightly wrapped around the same pillow your head was resting on not so long ago as if he's desperately trying to fill the void you just left. Even though his face turned the other way, you can still see that he has an adorable little smile decorating is handsome face. _Oh Mal, you look so sweet while you're dreaming.. _You quietly head towards the bed, with the intention of waking him up gently, and notice that there's make-up all over the pillow. It makes you realize that you forgot to remove your make-up before you went to bed. Now that you think of it, you don't even have a clue how you got to bed in the first place. _What went on last night? _You shrug it off and let yourself fall on top of Mal.

The pillow partially muffles the sound of the groan that escapes his mouth when your body unexpectedly impacts his. Still half asleep, he lifts his head up to face you. "Good morning to you as well." he says half groggily.

Since he has no shirt on, you let your head rest on his muscular, bare chest. You kind of hug him as much as possible. As you do so, you close your eyes for a second and take a moment to enjoy the special closeness between the two of you. "Good afternoon sweetheart.." you softly say back.

When the word 'afternoon' leaves your mouth, his head falls back onto the pillow. You would've sworn you heard him mumble 'you gotta be kidding me.' under his breath, which makes you giggle. With his hand he blindly reaches up to your cheek and tenderly strokes it. 'How are you feeling today, beautiful?"

You only listen half-heartedly to his question, because a part of you is also listening to his steady heartbeat, which is why it takes a while before you come up with a proper answer. "…My head is pretty much killing me.. And you?" Distracted, you start to write 'I [heart] you' on his chest with your index finger, even though you know it tickles him.

"Pretty much the same. Although…" You start to notice that he's trying his best not to laugh. "It's probably not as bad as yours." He finally gives in and lets out a chuckle. "Would you please stop that?"

"Stop what?" you ask with a fake innocent voice. All the while you have one of the biggest grins ever on your face.

He playfully slaps your hand away. "That! You know that it tickles."

You laugh mischievously. "Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't…"

"Hmm.. You're cute. That was a nice distraction... Now, let's cut to the chase; how much do you actually remember of last night?"

You briefly consider trying to distract him one more time, but you push that thought aside. So instead, you try to think back. You really, really try to remember as much as possible. But for the first time in what seems like an eternity, your brain completely fails you. Before you answer, you let out a deep sigh. "Not much… It's like there's a huge gap in my memory. The last thing I remember clearly is dancing at the party to that one Chris Brown song.. Y'know, the 'Countdown' one.. I remember how everyone was laughing and cheering because Mollys name was in there. But after that I barely remember things. And what I do remember is mostly a blur. I remember Neha forcing me to drink some water. I think that sobered me up a bit.. From that moment on I actually remember bits and pieces."

"Oh.. So… How much do you remember from our, uhm, walk on the beach?"

You look up to him, and see a very concerned Mal looking back at you. You fight back a sinister grin. "Our.. What? We were on the beach together? When?" you ask, using your best acting skills to deceive him.

His eyes widen with horror when those words leave your mouth. The sight is so freaking adorable that you burst out in laughter. "Awww, I'm joking! Sorry babe."

He manages to pull of a frown, even though you can see the corners of his mouth curl up a bit. "Not. Funny."

You move your hand up, and softly tickle his neck to make him laugh. "It's kinda funny."

He tries to escape the tickleness by moving his head away from you as far as possible. "No it's –" Right then it becomes too much, and he can't help but laugh. "Would you please stop that?" He asks jokingly.

You try to act innocent while you continue to tickle him. "Stop wh-" You can't help but scream when all of a sudden Mal uses his weight to turn you around and places you on your back. He positions himself on top of you and starts to tickle you all around. You burst out in laughter while you playfully try to fight him off. In between the laughter you manage to get out three words. "Mal. Stop. Please."

To which he fake-innocently replies "Stop what?".

**Now there's just one thing I'd like to ask you. A while ago I asked y'all if you wanted to be in the story.. I already added a few people who said they'd like to be a part of it, but I'm not even close to adding all the people who said they wanted to be a part of the story XD I was gonna add them in the next chapters, but…**

**Here's the thing; I've already written a lot of Maltara moments that'll happen later on in the story. So this story would move a lot quicker if I'd just skip all (or most of) the family interactions and I'd just focus on the Maltara-things.. BUT, that means that I won't introduce a lot new characters anymore… So what do you think? Skip to the Maltara, or stick to the original story line (which will take a lot longer)?**

**It's your call :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**You are now Natara Mansingh.**

Since you're not really used to partying like crazy, you still haven't recovered from last night. Which is probably why you keep zoning out throughout the day. You find yourself looking at Mal the whole time, while you're re-thinking everything that has happened yesterday. Every time you think about it, you get that amazing special butterfly feeling in your stomach.

"And that's how we –" All of a sudden there's a hand waving up and down in front of your eyes, which causes you to snap out of your thoughts. "…Natara, are you even listening to me?"

You turn your head to the person who's talking to you, and see a concerned looking Sarah looking back at you. You look around, and see Nikki, Molly, Tori, Danieka and Neha looking at you with the same facial expression Sarah has. The only person who isn't looking at you like that is little Vanessa, because she's too busy with making a sand castle. You're currently lying down on the beach, just chilling and catching up with everyone. Well, the others were catching up. To be honest, you weren't listening to the conversation at all. Matter of fact, you were completely zoned out. While they were busy discussing all kinds of things, you were kind of staring at Mal. Somewhere along the way you got completely lost in your own thoughts. _But they don't need to know that._ "W-what? Yes, of course I was listening to you." you stammer.

Molly decides to cut into the conversation. "Oh really? What did she just tell you?" she asks with a smirk on a face.

You try to remember what Sarah said, but all you can think of at the moment is how amazing Mal really is. "Uuhm.."

There's a deep sigh coming from Danieka. "This is the third time you've zoned out on us Nat." she says disapprovingly.

You bow your head in shame. "Yes, I know. I'm sorry…" you mumble.

"Just leave her alone. She's in love. I think it's cute!" Tori says with a big smile on her face.

Nikki chuckles at that remark. "Well, I'm in love as well, but you don't see me staring at Zac 24/7."

Glad that someone finally gets her point, Danieka smiles. "Exactly! Damn Nat, can't you stop staring at that guy for just one minute?"

At this point you're starting to blush. "I wasn-" you start.

But Neha interrupts you, with a huge grin on her face. "Yeah you were! Can't blame you though, he's hot."

You're not sure if you should flash her an appreciative smile, since she has your back, or look at her strangely because she just said that your boyfriend is hot. But halfway through that thought, your look somehow shifts over to Mal and you realize that what she's saying is more than true. In less than a second you're zoned out and you instantly get that dreamy look of someone who's deeply in love on your face again. Your eyes follow Mal continuously. He's currently throwing a football around with the rest of the guys a little further down the beach. They seem to enjoy themselves, since you can hear their laughter all the way over here. They're all excited about some baseball match that they'll be watching tonight. The match actually was this morning, but since they were all sleeping at that time, they're gonna watch it tonight.

You only listen half-heartedly to the conversation that the rest of the girls are having. But your heart skips a beat when you hear Neha saying the following. "Maybe she'll pay more attention when he's over here.."

You look over to her, and see that's she's smiling mischievously. As soon as you realize what she's about to do, you lunge up and try to get to her before she does it. Unfortunately you're too late.

"HEY MAL! COME OVER H-"

You manage to silence Neha before she's able to finish the rest of the sentence, but it's already too late. Mal's already jogging towards where you're sitting.

He shoots you and Neha a look that practically says 'what the fuck?' but he ignores the two of you and turns to the other girls instead. "Hey… What's up?"

At that point Neha bites you, not extremely hard, but hard enough to make you flinch. You immediately pull your hand back, and softly cuss her out under your breath. As soon as she's free, she continues to talk. "We need you to put your shirt back on, because Natara can't st-"

You quickly silence her by putting your hand over her mouth again, not caring if she bites it or not. Right now you'd do almost everything to keep her silent. "Neha, stop it. I'm not joking around anymore..." you warn her under your breath.

Nevertheless all the other girls are already laughing/giggling. You pay no attention to them though. Instead, you fake a smile towards Mal. "Everything is just fine, sweetie. You can go back to the guys." You say with a little hand wave, in the hope that he'll go away.

He has an amused look on his face. "Nah, they can wait a minute. I actually wanna hear what Neha has to say…"

Your eyes go wide, while you rack your brain, trying to find a way out of this mess. "Really? Because it sounded kinda boring to me…" you try.

He smirks at you. "How can it be boring when it involves the both of us? Now release your sister, honey." He folds his arms in front of his chest to make his point.

You make a face towards him while you release your grip on Neha. She dramatically takes a deep breath of fresh air, pretending that you were suffocating her. You playfully roll your eyes at this sight. She's about to open her mouth again, when the other guys join you. "Hey Mal, what's taking so long?"

When he turns around to explain it to them, you let out a deep breath you didn't realize you were holding. Then you turn to face Neha, and the other girls, who are still giggling. You scowl at them. "This is not funny!"

"Yeah it is! My sis, the tough, hot-shot FBI agent, is actually freaking out because she's scared that her boyfriend might find out that she's continuously staring at him." She purposely shouts the last part into Mals direction, which makes him look back and grin before continuing his conversation. After seeing his reaction, she gets a satisfied smile on her face as well. "If that isn't funny, I don't know what is!"

At this point you just kind of give up. _She won this round._ You take a deep breath to calm yourself down and try to ignore your little sister, because you know that you'll probably say something mean otherwise.

Sarah notices, and smiles at you. "Everything okay there, sweetie? You look like you could use some cooling off.." she says jokingly.

You roll your eyes at her, currently not in the mood for jokes.

Molly seems to notice, because she quickly interjects, "I think we all could use a little cooling off, I'm almost melting. "

"So how about a quick dive into the ocean then?" Jesse, your nephew who's a few years younger, suggests.

Everyone enthusiastically agrees and gets up to makes their way to the ocean. All of a sudden Nikki takes off. "Last one is the ocean is a loser!" She calls over her shoulder.

Everyone immediately makes a run for it. You're about to follow them as well, when you notice that someone's missing. So you look back, and see Danieka still sitting next to Vanessa. She mouths 'sorry' while she points to the little girl next to her, who's busily playing with the sand. Meanwhile Mal has noticed that you've fallen behind and he jogs back to you.

You take a seat next to Danieka again, and are about to ask why she's not joining, when Mal starts to shout to you from a distance. "Hey, what's the matter?" He jogs up and takes a seat next to you.

Danieka nods towards Vanessa. "She doesn't want to swim, since she's too busy with building her sand castle. And I don't want to leave her alone, so I'm staying with her. There's no need for you two to stay behind as well though.. So why don't you go out there and enjoy yourselves? Have a little fun for me as well, will you?"

You think it through for a second. "Well.. I already took a dive yesterday.. So it's only fair that you get to take a dive now, since you haven't had the chance yet. It's lovely, trust me. Besides, I wouldn't mind staying behind to watch Vanessa."

She shoots you a concerned look. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure!" You try to push her on her feet. "Now go! Have fun."

She hesitantly takes off, and looks back over he shoulder multiple times, as if she's unsure she should continue.

You laugh. "Goooo!" you shout at her.

Finally she makes a run for the ocean. You watch how she joins the rest of the family, and then turn to Mal. "..Why are you still here, handsome?"

He leans over and gives you a soft kiss on the cheek. "What? Can't a guy spend some time alone with his beautiful girlfriend? …And her cute, little niece." He looks over to her, and gets this cute smile on his face, that melts your heart. Your bad mood instantly disappears.

All of a sudden Mal gets up, settles down next to Vanessa and studies the pile of sand in front of her. "What are you making, princes?"

She smiles widely at him. "Cupcakes!" She grabs some sand into her tiny hands and holds it out in front of him. "Want some?"

He chuckles. "Nah, I'm not really a huge cupcake fan, but thanks anyway.."

You get up as well and take a seat opposite of them. "I though that you were making a sandcastle?"

She frowns. "Yeah.. But it's haaard. So now I'm making cupcakes."

Mal fakes a gasp. "A princes like you shouldn't be making cupcakes! You belong in a castle, not in a kitchen.. You know what? How about me and Auntie Natara help you make an awesome sandcastle?"

Her face lights up as soon as those words leave his mouth. "Really?"

"Yeah, of course! Right, Nat?"

You flash her a smile. "Sure! I'd love to help."

The three of you start to work on a sandcastle worthy of little princess Vanessa. After a while of hard work, you all take a moment to admire the result.

Vanessa is the first one to comment. "It's pretty!"

You can't help but smile at that simple, yet very true statement. "It is, isn't it?"

"But what if someone breaks it?"

You try your best to think of a good answer, but Mal beats you to it. "Well.. If you want to avoid that, you have to protect your castle from the bad guys!"

"But.. How?"

Mal smirks. "Let me show you.." He starts to dig a ditch around the castle, with only one bridge that leads to the castle. It's 'to keep the bad guys out' according to him. Vanessa doesn't mind, though. In fact, she likes the idea of 'keeping the bad guys from ruining her castle' so much that she starts to build walls around the castle. You join in and start to work on some walls as well.

Halfway through the construction work, Mal interrupts the hardworking silence. "Do you know what would be awesome?"

"Lots and lots of Unicorns?" She asks without looking up from her work.

Both of you laugh at her reaction and he looks in your direction with a look that says 'she really is your little niece'. "That too... But what if we would fill the ditch with water, so that the bad guys would have an even harder time to get to your castle?"

"Yeaaahh! That would be cool! …How are we gonna get some water?"

"From the ocean!" He gets up to grab a bucket. "I'll be right back." Then he takes off towards the ocean and fills it. Meanwhile you and Vanessa continue to work on the walls. As soon as he's back, he pours all the water into the ditch. "See? Looks awesome, huh?"

"Yess!" She gets up as well and hugs his leg. "Thank you uncle Mal."

The face he makes when she calls him 'uncle Mal' is pretty much adorable. You watch how he kind of processes it, and then he smiles proudly.

His smile quickly fades when she suddenly gasps. Concerned as he is, he gets down to her level and follows her gaze. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"

She pouts, which looks absolutely adorable, and then points towards the castle. "The water! It's going away!" She grabs the bucket from the sand, where Mal had put it, and gives it to him. "You need to get some more." She says firmly.

Much to your surprise, he actually obeys her and takes off to get some more water. You can't help but laugh at the fact that dashing Detective Mal Fallon gets ordered around by a little 3 year old girl. "Hurry up Mal, the water level is sinking!" You yell teasingly.

"Yeah, hurry!" Vanessa shouts, although she's being much more serious about it than you are.

He sticks his tongue out to you. "Yeah, yeah. I'm going as fast as I c-" all of a sudden he trips over something and falls face first in the sand. The bucket flies out of his hands and lands in front of him, thus spilling water everywhere.

"Oh no!" Vanessa yells with a concerned look on her face. She takes off towards Mal before it even crosses your mind to stop her.

Mal looks up at the sound of her voice and smiles widely. "Don't worry princes, I'm o.."

His happy face turns into an astonished one when Vanessa stops running once she's reached the bucket. She grabs the bucket, pouts when she sees that it's almost empty, and runs off to the ocean to re-fill it. She runs past Mal without looking at him just once.

You quickly get up to follow her to the ocean, since she can't swim yet. Mal is about to do the same, but he stops when the rest of the family notices that she's running towards the ocean and intercept her. So instead of running after Vanessa, you take a seat next to Mal. Together observe how everyone is having a little water splash battle. Vanessa seems to have forgotten all about the sand castle by now. Mal turns his head to you and smirks. "And here I was, thinking she was concerned about uncle Mal.."

You playfully ruffle his hair. "Awww... What can I say? She's a heartbreaker."

"Sure is.." he says sadly, while faking a pout.

_Why does he have to be so adorable? _"Don't look at me like that… It's not my fault.." He obeys you, sort of, and shifts his gaze from you to somewhere into the distance. He still has that freaking pout decorating his handsome face though, which makes you feel really bad for him, even though you know that he's faking it. "..If it makes you feel any better; I was concerned about you." You say, trying to make him laugh again.

Luckily, it works, because you see a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. He bites his lip to stop himself from smiling, but barely a second later he can't help but give in and smiles widely. He looks back to you again, gently takes your face in his hands and gives you a soft kiss on the lips. "Can't even let me have a fake-dramatic moment, can you?" he says softly, while deeply gazing into your eyes.

The sudden kiss makes you somewhat blush, but you refuse to break the eye contact. "Sorry babe.. But I just hate seeing you sad, whether it's fake or not."

"Aww, aren't you adorable?" he says with a smirk. He leans in for another kiss, but you playfully push him away.

"Not half as adorable as you are with Vanessa." You respond with a grin.

"Hey, that doesn't count! Everyone is adorable with her. It's because she has this insanely high 'adorableness-level'. It's so high that she _makes_ other people adorable. You can't blame that on me!" he defends himself, trying his best to sound serious. Nevertheless he's smiling from ear to ear.

You laugh at his attempt to explain his adorableness. "Oh shut it, Mal. Just admit it, you're a sof-" All of a sudden you feel his lips on yours again. Surprised, you raise your eyebrows while you softly push him off of you. "What was that for..?"

He gives you another kiss before he answers. "Oh, I was just preventing you from saying what you were about to say."

"By kissing me? That's ridiculous.."

"Really? It's working, isn't it?"

"No it's not. And even if it were working, it wouldn't take away the fact that you are a huge soft-" Before you're able to finish your sentence, he quickly kisses you again and makes you forget what you were about to say.

He pulls back with a huge smirk on his face. "See? Working."

**Hey everyone! **

**Long time no update, hahaha. I personally didn't really like the first part of the chapter tbh, hope you enjoyed it anyway! Most of you voted for the whole story.. I'm fine with that, but it's probably gonna take way longer :p Just a heads up! Also, I have some tests coming up next week and the week after, so idk when I'll update again… I'll do my best though! (Already wrote 1/3 of the next chapter so yaay for that!)**

**Oh and if you haven't read it yet, read my new story 'Something Special'! It's already finished so you won't have to wait on updates of that hahaha. I think that it' incredibly cute, so if you enjoy Fortune, you'll definitely enjoy that story as well!**

**Anyways, onto the review replies: **

**Kaywilkins: Aww thank you! :D**

**Crimson Endings: Haha thanks Tori! Booyah, more people it is! Hahaha, the story is gonna end eventually though….. Sorry :( Aww thanks!**

**Bananaballer13: Sorry.. You were out-voted XD I'll try to include a little Maltara in each chapter though!**

**CoD Fan: Hehe okaay! Thanks :)**

**AKgal2001: Haha aww thank you so much! Hahaha cuz I really didn't know what to do XD **

**Guest: Okidoki! I'll try my best ;)**

**Mozzi-Girl: Hell yeah I did! Hahaha, don't die on me Molly! Thank you! :D**

**NiekaWow: Hehe I'll just do a little of both instead :D Awww, don't be jealous sweetie :( I'm sure you could write things like this as well if you wanted to!**

**Danielle: Hahaha, I like the way you think! Thank you! Yeahh man, things are getting a little steamy between them hahahaha.**

**Maltararox21: Awww you made me smile so much! Thank you :D Haha yeah I'll try to do both :D Hahahah I'll be sure to inculude that in the story ;)**

**I am a guest lol: hahaha lol your name! But yesss I agree! It's cuz they know each other inside and out ;) **

**DizzyRedHead: Hahahaha, chiiiiill! There's loads of amazing stuff that'll happen in between this point of their relationship and their wedding! :D Just enjoy the Maltara/Vanessa cuteness right now, cuz that's the closest they're gonna get of having a child for a while, at least in my stories :p Thank you! And yeah, school's crazy…**

**HopelessRomantic1994: Awww thank you so much Jade! :D For everything that you wrote in your review hahaha. **

**No fam is fine: Lol, it's gonna be a little fam though XD But don't worry, I won't forget about the Maltara!**

**Guest: … Welp, another guest. Maybe you guys should put your names at the end of a review or something, that way I'd know who's who! ;) Haha yeahh, definitely! She's gonna be added :D More family is gonna come next chapter!**

**Hurry: hehe, sorry, I was busy with school and writing 'Something Special'! Hope you can forgive me :p**

**Thanks for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hi everyone!**

**First of all, a massive thank you to all the readers of 'Sweet Love'. I just noticed that it passed the 10,000 views and I'm just sitting here, smiling like an idiot as I type this. I seriously can't believe it….**

**Anyways, I'm going to try to update next weekend, but I don't know how that'll work out since I'm actually still in my exam period.. I'll try my best though! Thank you for reading, reviewing, and being incredibly patient with me. I truly appreciate it and, believe it or not, I love each and every one of you.**

**Enjoy this chapter!**

**You are now Natara Mansingh. **

After dinner everyone made their way to a beautiful terrace overlooking the beach. Tom and his family arrived a few hours earlier, and you all had dinner together in the huge dining room. It was admittedly a little awkward at first, since the two families never interacted with each other before, but it was only a matter of time before the conversations started. The men all got really excited when they found out that Tom and his family hadn't watched the baseball game either since they were on the plane, and they were planning to watch it together after dinner. They enthusiastically talked about which team is the best throughout the whole dinner, while the women ignored them and mainly talked about how exciting the wedding is. During all the wedding talk you somewhat bonded with a woman called Taytum over your mutual love for white lilies. Neha seems to get along with her younger sister, Georgia, who turns out to be quite the party animal. The two excitedly exchanged the craziest party stories. Much to your surprise Georgia actually had way more crazy stories than Neha did.

Right now the men have just finished watching the baseball game on a big screen TV at one side of the terrace. From what you hear, it seems like they are currently discussing everything that has happened. Things get a little heated once in a while, but they immediately laugh it off afterwards.

Meanwhile the girls are lounging on the other side of the terrace. You find yourself sitting next to Hannah, who's currently telling a joke that's keeping everyone interested. You're trying to listen to her, but your eyes wander around aimlessly. Not because she's boring, but simply because you're zoning out again like you've been doing throughout the whole day. You take your time to take in the beautiful sunset, which colours the sky an astonishing deep red colour. It gets reflected by the ocean, and results in a breathtaking view. You observe how the waves crash on the shore and wash the sand away. The palm trees rustle because of a gentle breeze. You could honestly stay and observe this view for hours. The longer you watch it, the more you want to be out there. Before you know it, your eyes are set on your handsome boyfriend. He's sipping a beer, simply enjoying spending time with the guys. You watch how he almost chokes in his beer because he laughs at a joke from Jesse while taking a sip. You can't help but laugh at this ridiculous sight. Lucky for you there's some laughter coming from the rest of your surrounding as well, indicating that Hannah finished her joke. You glance around and bite your lip when you realize how awkward it could've been if you'd been laughing on your own. You get lost in your thoughts again, and in a blink of an eye your eyes are set on Mal again. It's like the two of you are magnets, which keep attracting each other. The sight of him makes you forget about everything around you. And somehow you don't even care that you almost made a fool of yourself, because you're too caught up with Mal, again.

**You are now Mal Fallon.**

You unwillingly shiver, because you can't seem to shake the feeling that someone's watching you. You uncomfortably glance around, but you can't see anyone out on the beach. Then you look over your shoulder and see Natara looking at you. She instantly looks away when she sees that you're looking back, trying to act like it has never happened. But the blush that's creeping on her cheeks is pretty much confirming that you caught her staring at you again. She knows that you caught her, and she doesn't know how to act because of this. She looks so awkwardly cute at the moment that you just want to go over there to hold her close, make her feel safe and comfortable, while you whisper reassuring things in her ear until she is at ease. So that's exactly what you instinctively do. You're already halfway when you finally realise what you're doing. "...Sorry. I'm just gonna go over there for a second.." you quickly call over your shoulder. You catch a glimpse of a widely smiling Jesse, who gestures to you that it's okay to continue your way to Natara. Not that you would've stopped when he would've said something differently… You notice how she slightly panics when you walk over there, which makes you smile widely. You observe how she excuses herself to the girls and gets up to sort of meet you halfway.

"Hey there, beautiful.." you say as soon as you're in ear-shot.

She puts her hands on your chest and leans in to give you a tender kiss. "Hey handsome..."

"Would you mind holding this, while I go for a walk on the beach?" you ask while you extend your hand to her.

She looks down at your hand and laughs. "No, not at all.."

You flash her a charming smile and gently take her hand, gaining you a wide smile from her. Together you make your way to the beach, getting away from the crowd. You bring her really close to the ocean, because you know that she loves being close to the nature. The warm ocean water gently washes over your feet once in a while, as you continue to walk further and further from the rest of the family. The sound of the party gradually becomes softer, and you have absolutely no idea how much time goes by while you're walking. In fact, you don't even care. You're actually way too busy with stealing glances of Natara. You quietly observe how the moonlight illuminates her face and makes her look absolutely stunning.

Natara is the first to break the silence. "So… Who won?"

You smile at her attempt to act like she's interested in the game. "Don't worry about it, babe. That's not important after all.."

"It seemed pretty important not so long ago when you guys were cheering and arguing about it..."

The fact that she still tries her best to act interested, while she couldn't care less, really warms your heart. _She's so adorable. I'm really blessed to have such an amazing girlfriend. _But since you believe that she is way more important than sports, you don't really want to talk about sports in the first place. That's why you choose your words very carefully. "That may be.. But it's not important right now. What's important right now is that we are having a romantic walk on the beach, and we're not going to ruin that by talking about sports."

She softly squeezes your hand and turns to you with an amused look on her face. "I keep forgetting that you're such a cheesy boyfriend."

You turn your head to face her. "I am no-" You start.

But she interrupts you. "Yes you are! And you're adorable with children as well." She says teasingly, knowing that it'd provoke you a little.

You jokingly roll your eyes. "You're really pushing it, Nat.. I could live with cheesy, or adorable. But I can't live with both.. Do you have any idea what that would do with my reputation?"

She softly laughs. "Oh, shut up Mal. You're both. Whether you accept it or not… It's a fact."

"… You do realize that Neha send me that video of you being drunk yesterday, right? Be nice, or I'll put it on Youtube. 'Hot shot FBI profiler gets so drunk that she can't even walk in a straight line anymore'. I'm sure it would get loads of hits!"

She doesn't seem fazed by this though. "Do whatever you want, but that doesn't take away that you're cheesy, cute and adorable."

You let out an over exaggerated sigh. "Oh great, so now I'm cute as well? What other horrible things do you think of me?" you ask, while faking a pout.

She playfully rolls her eyes at you. "I'm currently thinking that you might be the biggest drama queen I've ever met."

You can't help but grin. "I'm sorry. I guess I've been spending too much time with Vanessa. It's contagious apparently."

She fakes a gasp. "In that case.." She jokingly pushes you away. "Please stay away from me as far as possible."

You quickly recover from the push, but instead of following her, you don't move a single muscle. It doesn't take long before she notices that you're no longer by her side, and she looks back at you, the questions written all over her face.

"Did you just.. push me?" you ask dramatically. You put your hand on your heart for a dramatic emphasis.

She rolls her eyes at the sight of you, yet you still notice the smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "Oh come on.. It wasn't even that hard…"

Even though she's right, you pout at her.

You see her face soften when you do so. "Awww.." She softly says while she slowly walks over to you. It's hard to maintain your pout, because a part of you gets incredibly happy when she walks over to you, yet somehow you manage to pull it off. She puts her soft, warm hand on your cheek and tenderly strokes it with her thumb. "Don't look so sad, baby…" she whispers with her face in kissing distance. You're about to give up on your façade to lean in and kiss her, when she continues talking. "Because it only makes you look even more adorable.."

You fake a sigh at her and shake your head. "I thought we just went over this.. I am _not_ adorable." you say with a slight frown.

She gently wraps her arms around your neck and gives you a soft kiss. "Who are you kidding? See that face that you're making right now? It's adorable."

"Nat, I'm a grown man! I am NOT ador-"

"Yes you are. You, Mal Fallon, are incredibly adorable….. Actually, now that I think of it.. You're Maldorable!" She bursts out in laughter.

"I'm WHAT?! …No never mind, don't even repeat it. If you'll say it ONE more time, I'll –"

"You'll do what? Drown me in your cuteness? Suffocate me in your Maldorableness?" she says teasingly.

You grin mischievously. "Nah, I'm going to tickle you!"

As soon as those words leave your mouth, she, again, pushes you away and takes off. "Not if you'll never catch me!" she jokingly shouts over her shoulder.

It takes you a moment to recover from the unexpected push, but then you immediately chase her with a smirk on your face. _Challenge accepted._ You get closer to her and can't help but chuckle when she flees into the water to avoid getting caught."Hey! Get back here!" you yell after her.

She turns around and sticks her tongue out to you. "No way! ..Why don't you come over here instead?" She let's herself fall into the water and floats on the waves. "It's really lovely..."

You stand at the edge of the ocean, the waves are gently washing over your feet and you're briefly contemplating whether to go in after her or not. "...I'm not going to swim in the freakin' ocean right now. It's almost dark!" You cross your arms in front of your chest to make some sort of point.

"Awww, are you afraid of the dark? How cute!" she teases.

You cringe a little when she mentions that last word.

"Come on, Mal! The water is warm, and since the weather is so perfect we'll be dry in a matter of time anyway.. It's not like we're going to get sick."

You let your arms fall to your side and let out a fake, huge sigh. "Fine.. But I'm only doing this for you.." You pretend to go into the ocean with great reluctance. But all of a sudden you make a run for it and quickly make your way to Natara. Your unexpected move made her panic a little and she lets out a soft squeal while she tries to stay above water. You find this incredibly cute, and it brings a smile to your face. As soon as you get close to Natara, she teasingly starts to splash water into your face. The soft giggle that accompanies her action makes you smile even wider. To avoid the water she's splashing in your face, you take a deep breath and dive under water. You quickly swim towards Natara and pull her down as well. At first she tries to push you away, and she struggles to get out of your grip, but you tightly hold on to her and give her a kiss. She immediately relaxes into your arms, and wraps her arms around your neck to pull you even closer. Together you enjoy a few moments of bliss underwater. Eventually you go up for air, with her still safely in your arms, and take a few deep breaths. As you do so, you take a moment to observe the gorgeous woman in front of you with a huge smile on your face.

She starts to blush a little and gets a little uncomfortable. "..What?" she asks softly, while she lovingly strokes some hair out of your face.

"Nothing. You're beautiful." You breathe. Before she can respond, you lean in and give her a tender kiss.

The two of you mess around in the water for a while, and you have no idea how much time passes. Eventually you head back to the beach. The sun has completely set, and the only light sources are the moon and the faint lights of the party in the distance. _I had no idea we actually walked that far.. _Natara takes a seat on the beach, facing the ocean. You let yourself fall next to her, and lie down all sprawled out, as if you're about to make a snow angle. You look up to the stars, and kind of expect her to join you instantly. You let a few moments pass, and then worriedly look up to her to see why she's not lying in your arms yet. She seems to be staring at something in the distance, and is completely lost in her thoughts again.

So you force yourself into a seating position and quietly observe her for a short moment. When she doesn't even seem to notice that you're looking at her you lean over and gently take her hand.

As soon as your hand touches hers, she returns back to reality. She turns to you with a cute, shy smile on her face, as if she's ashamed of what just happened. "Sorry about that.." she softly says.

You flash her a reassuring smile back. "Don't worry about it.. What were you thinking about?"

"Just how cute you were with Vanessa today.." She says while she puts her head on your shoulder.

"Hmm…" There's something that you really want to ask her, but you have no idea how to bring it up in a way that won't freak her out. You re-direct your gaze towards the ocean and stare at it, as if it holds the answer you're desperately looking for. You notice how she worriedly looks up to you because of the lack of response, probably because she's afraid she might've gone too far with teasing you. So you turn you head to her while you quickly contemplate several approaches and eventually choose to go with the most straightforward way you can think of. "Nat.. Do you ever think about kids of your own?" you whisper, as if the words are afraid to leave your mouth.

The question seems to have caught her off guard, because she instantly looks away from you. She looks out to the ocean instead, trying her best to hide the sudden blush that creeps on her face. "Well.. I.. Uh.." she manages to get out. Her reaction makes you smile a little. Trying to reassure her, you lean in and tenderly kiss her on her cheek. Causing her to look down at the sand next to her, as if she's shy.

The smile on your face widens because of the overwhelming amount of cuteness, and a huge part of you would rather leave her like that because it's simply adorable. But you really want to know the answer to your question, so you gently lift her chin up, making her face you. You're trying to make eye contact, but she's still trying her best to avoid you. Not fazed by her reaction you simply lean in and tenderly kiss her on the lips. Then you pull back just a little, your lips almost touching. "I'm not saying we should have one right now.. I just meant in general. Ever thought about it?" you says softly.

Her eyes finally meet yours. "Actually, yes. I have. …Have you?" she asks with a little smile.

You lovingly stroke her cheek. "I have thought about it as well.."

"And..?" she asks curiously.

You raise your eyebrows at her. "And what?"

"What was your conclusion?"

Now it's your turn to get a little shy and you almost look away, but you force yourself to keep looking in her beautiful, brown eyes, because you want her to know that you really mean it. "..That I wouldn't mind having a little Natara running around in a few years." You answer, while a small blush creeps up your cheeks.

Her smile instantly widens. "And I wouldn't mind a little Malachi.."

Even though you dislike the fact that she used your whole first name, it still feels like a huge weight has been lifted off your shoulders as soon as those words leave her mouth. You smile and lean in for a kiss to kind of celebrate what just happened, but she stops you. Surprised by this, you raise your eyebrows at her, silently asking why she's stopping you.

She gets a mischievous grin on her face. "Especially if he turns out to be just as adorable as his dad." She adds teasingly.

You chuckle. "Oh, you are going to regret that comment…" You say with a huge grin.

A flash of a worried look crosses her face, but before she even got the chance to think about doing something to stop you, your fingers already found her sides and you start to tickle her without any mercy. The sound of her laughter fills the air, and you absolutely love it.

**Review replies:**

**HopelessRomantic1994: Awww thank you so much. Hahaha ikr! What's not to love? ;)**

**DizzyRedhead: Hahaha I feel like Neha is the person who'd say anything us Deathicated would like to say to Mal/Natara :p **

**Akgal2001: Wheew, I'm happy to hear that! Ah he is, isn't he? Hahah aww thank you so much! **

**Mozzi-Girl: You died twice in your review... U ok there Molly? Or do I need to call 911 for you, cuz…. Hahahah jk, thank you so much though :D**

**CoDisgreat: Omg how can you forget being married to such a hottie?! Shame on you! Awww, thank you so much.. Heh, I'm sure you're not so forever alone as you think you are!**

**Crimson Endings: Hahah I'm glad to hear that! Thank you so much Tori.**

**NiekaWow: She's freaking adorable hahahah! Awww, bummer! Cuz the more Maltara fanfics there are, the better ;) Strange that it doesn't work on an iPad though.. Thank you so much! **


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi there all you lovely people! **

**I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas this year.. And I also hope that y'all haven't forgotten about me.. Lol. I'm so sorry for not updating for… what seems like an eternity XD I was busy with school and stuff, y'know how it is… School is currently kicking my ass :p But I promise to update whenever I can!**

**By the way, there was supposed to be a wedding before this chapter, but I think that we all remember that period when errrbody was writing about weddings… So I think it's safe to say that everyone kinda knows how a wedding goes xD That's why I choose to leave it out :p (Also cuz I was planning to do an Indian wedding, but I've only been to a full Indian wedding one once and that was yeaarss ago so I don't remember any of the details. And my mom isn't particularly helpful when it comes to that subject either..) So just use your imagination :')**

**I just wanna thank all of you for reading, reviewing, and being patient with my update frequency. :D You are all awesome!**

**Hope this long-overdue chapter makes up for my absence! **

**You are now Natara Mansingh.**

"Hurry up! It has already started! I can hear the music playing from here!" Katie, Toms sister, calls to you from over her shoulder.

"I don't know about you, but I can't run any faster on high heels." you breathe while running up to the huge building in front of you after stepping out of the car. You're rapidly making your way too the patio of your parents mansion, because that is where everyone else currently is. When you finally reach it, you find Katie holding the door open for you. You silently thank her with an appreciative smile when you step past her and quietly blend into the crowd, with her following in your footsteps. You look around, and feel a wave of relieve spreading through your body, because no one even noticed that you just slipped inside. Everyone is too busy observing how Tom and Molly are having their first, official dance as husband and wife. They look absolutely radiant, and you're almost certain that you've never seen Molly this happy. The both of them are being filmed from all kinds of different angles, but they don't even seem too noticed. They're too busy with lovingly staring into each others eyes, while gently swaying to the music.

This is the perfect moment to catch your breath. Not so long ago you were heading back to Mal after getting a drink at the bar. He had offered to get it for you, but you insisted on getting it yourself. Mainly because you wanted to go for a little walk to observe the people around you, but also because you feel like he already does so many things for you.. The least you can do is getting your own drinks. In retrospect you regret getting it yourself, because Katie bumped into you (or you bumped into her, the opinions seem to differ when it comes to that.) causing your drink to spill all over her dress. After a lot of apologizing from both sides, you offered her a ride back to her apartment so she could get changed. She hesitated at first, because Molly and Tom could arrive at any second. But after a quick glance down to her beautiful white dress, the red wine stain quickly changed her mind. So the two of you quickly headed back to her temporary apartment in your car, so she could get changed. It didn't take very long, but it was long enough to miss the start of their very first dance, and you can't help but feel slightly bad about it.

While the just-married pair is having their magical moment, your eyes quickly scan the room. Much to your delight you see that everyone is pretty much smiling from ear to ear. There are tears rolling down the faces of several women, but they are widely smiling nevertheless. At that point the song changes, meaning that it's not their first dance anymore. Which is why your father stands up, and with a simple hand gesture he asks for your mothers hand. She gladly accepts, and together they join Molly and Tom on the dance floor. Now that they broke the ice, more people follow, and it doesn't take long until the dance floor is pretty crowded.

Instead of joining them on the dance floor, your eyes search further. They're looking for the distinctive ocean blue eyes that you love so much. Meanwhile Katie says her goodbyes to you before she leaves your side to head over to the rest of her family. It doesn't take long until your eyes fall on Mal, who's surprisingly sitting down at a table at the side of the patio, with little Vanessa on his lap. He is deliberately pulling some weird faces at her, making her giggle uncontrollably. She's trying to use her small hands to get his face back to normal, but when he doesn't give in she laughs even harder. The sight is so adorable that you can't stop yourself from smiling as well. They're surrounded by some of your family members who didn't chose to join the crowd on the dance floor, but continued to have conversations with each other. Nevertheless every single one of them seems to enjoy themselves.

You make your way over to them, dodging people left and right. When you get close Mal immediately notices you and gets a huge, enormously cute smile on his face. He nudges Vanessa while saying something to her, and then points to you. When she sets eyes on you she instantly gets a huge smile on her face as well and starts to wave enthusiastically. You happily wave back and quickly close the distance in between you. After taking a seat on the chair next to them, you give him a tender kiss on his cheek, making him slightly blush. Then you give her a soft kiss on her forehead. "Hey sweetie, what are you doing?"

She wraps her tiny arms around your neck and plants a wet kiss on your cheek. "Uncle Mal is doing a funny thing with his eyes!" she enthusiastically says after she let go of you and settles down on his lap again.

Intrigued as you are, you turn your attention to him instead. "Oh, is he really?"

He lets out a chuckle and shrugs at you. "I have no idea what she's talking about... Isn't everyone supposed to look like this?" He turns her head to her and squints his eyes deliberately.

She puts one hand in front of her mouth while she gasps for air. "Look, he is doing it again!" she yells while pointing at his face. Then she bursts out in another uncontrollable wave of cute giggles.

He shoots you an innocent look. "What did I do?" he says, trying his best to sounds as innocent as possible. But he fails miserably, especially when he can't suppress the grin that's making its way to his face.

You shrug, while your suppressing a grin of your own. "I have no idea what she's talking about…" you say teasingly, thus play along.

"Me neither.." Then he does the trick with his eyes again, making her laugh even louder.

When he keeps looking at her like that, she puts her tiny hands on his cheeks and tries to get his eyes back to normal. "Stop looking so silly uncle Mal!" But he doesn't budge; no matter how much she pushes or pulls his cheeks, which results in some very funny faces by the way.

It doesn't take long before she desperately turns to you, which gives Mal an opportunity to finally look normal again. "He won't stop looking silly!" she says with a huge smile, sounding slightly amazed.

You can't help but laugh at her cuteness, and feel slightly bad about what you're going to do next, but you do it anyway. You squint your eyes at her as well, making her burst out in giggles again. "Why do you keep saying he's looking silly? Isn't he supposed to look like this?" you ask teasingly.

Time really flies when you're having fun, something that's made very clear to you when Vanessa's parents return after dancing to a few songs together to 'rescue' the both of you from continuously entertaining her. Both of you hug her goodbye, because she has to go to bed since it's quite late already, and wave at her until she's out of sight.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think that she was your kid..." A familiar voice says behind you. When you turn around, you find your younger niece Sarah grinning widely at you. "The three of you are simply adorable together, which is why I can't help but think that you'd be good parents."

Both of you thank her for those kind words.

"So.. When will you two love birds be having children?"

Mal and you share a short look, thinking about the conversation you had last night, and smile. He awkwardly looks down, and seems to get a little shy. So you slip your hand in his for support while you answer. "We're not really there yet… But we'll make sure to let you know when the time comes." You say half jokingly.

Another familiar, booming voice meddles into the conversation. "When the time comes for what?" You turn around, again, and see your father approaching.

Mal subconsciously squeezes your hand when he recognises the voice and he subtly leans over to you. "Why do I feel like we're being ambushed?" he half-jokingly whispers while he watches how your father approaches. You hold back a wave of laughter as you softly squeeze his hand back.

He softens his grip on your hand and flashes your father a charming smile. "For dancing, of course! And I think that that time is now.." He gently pulls you along. "So if you'll excuse us… We'll be over there." He points towards the dance floor and then quickly leads you away from the baby-conversation before it gets too awkward.

"What was that about…?" you ask when you've reached the dance floor.

He shrugs and disregards it like it's nothing. You briefly think about softly pushing him away unless he tells you straight up while he's wrapping an arm around your waist. But that thought gets lost as soon as he makes eye contact with you and gently starts to sway to the slow jam that is currently playing. The two of you get lost in each others eyes, and right then and there nothing else matters anymore.

When the song is over, the lead singer of the band takes the word. "How is everybody doing this fine evening?" Instead of responding with words, the crowd responds with cheering, which makes him laugh. "Alriiiight! As you probably all know we're here today to celebrate the marriage of the lovely Molly and her now-husband Tom! However, the songs we've played until now weren't really.. Celebrate-y. Sooo, I was thinking.. We should switch things up a bit!" There is some cheering again from people who obviously agree with him. He grins as he looks back to the other band members. "What do you say fellas, could we switch it up?" They all nod in agreement, to which the singer turns back to the crowd. "Alright, here it comes.. Are you ready?" He takes a deep breath and starts singing. _Suavementeeeeee, besame. Que quiero sentir tus labios. Besandome otra vez._The band falls in, and plays a smooth salsa beat to support their singer.

While everyone else in the crowd goes wild and immediately start dancing to the song, Mal shoots you an wide-eyed look that tells you that he'd rather be anywhere else except for on this dance floor. "Nat, I can't d-"

You put a finger to his lips to shush him, and flash him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I'll teach you. It's shouldn't be that hard for a guy who can do the moonwalk without a problem.." you tease a little. You put his arm back around your waist and walk him through the basic steps. Like you expected, he picks it up pretty quickly. Just a song later he manages to pull it off without stepping on your feet. Sadly he continues to look down to his feet because he's trying his best on concentrating on the moves, making you miss the beauty of his ocean blue eyes. So you put your hand under his chin and force him to look you in the eyes instead of to his feet. "Relax, you're doing great babe. Just keep looking at me, and try to enjoy it.." you say encouraging.

He nods at you with a slightly insecure smile, and keeps looking you in the eye, making the butterflies in your stomach go crazy. The band plays a few more salsa songs, and Mal visibly relaxes throughout them. He gets that gorgeous smile back on his face, and he doesn't seem so lost anymore. In fact, he actually seems to enjoy it.

Which is probably why he gets an irritated look on his face when the band stops playing and the singer starts talking again. "Okay, okay.. I think it's safe to say y'all love your salsa.. Howeverrr, we just got a request from a lovely lady in a red dress. So sweetheart, wherever you are, this one is for you!" He scrapes his throat and counts down from three.

The band starts playing a beat that everyone, this time including Mal, immediately recognizes. His face instantly lights up in recognition and he gets a huge smile on his face. Which gets even wider when the singer starts to sing. _The warden threw a party in the county jail. The prison band was there and they began to wail. The band was jumpin' and the joint began to swing. You should've heard those knocked out jailbirds sing._

The evening really flies by, and before you know it you find yourself walking across the beach. The handsome man that you proudly call your boyfriend has wrapped his arm around you and pulls you as close to him as possible to protect you from the chilly breeze. It's entirely dark outside; the only light comes from the moon and the beautiful stars. Luckily your apartment isn't that far away, so it only takes a few minutes to walk back. You've chosen to walk because both of you are slightly tipsy, and you agreed that it'd be a waste to crash the gorgeous Ferrari because of the state you're in.

The party ended pretty abruptly when a niece from Tom, namely Georgia, started vomiting all over the dance floor. Followed by her almost passing out in her own vomit if it wasn't for Tom who caught her just in time. Everyone was shocked for a split second, and then all hell broke lose. Some people were rushing towards her to see if she was okay, while others didn't even try to hide the fact that they disapproved of her behaviour. This, combined with the freely flowing liquor, caused for some trouble, which was the queue for you and Mal to leave since neither of you were interested to get into a fight with anyone. Other, non-tipsy people would most likely handle the situation so you left them to it.

Before all of that drama, however, the party was amazing. The band managed to entertain everyone throughout the night. As the night progressed and liquor made it's way into people's system, more and more people joined in on the dance floor. Everyone was having a blast and getting along just fine. It definitely was a party worth to remember.

When you and Mal finally reach the apartment, the two if you take a seat on top of the stairs of the deck to observe the beautiful view before getting inside. You sit as close to Mal as possible, thus profiting from his body heat. You use his shoulder as a headrest as well while you get comfortable against him. Not that he minds.. In fact, you're pretty sure that you saw a glimpse of a smirk on his handsome face before you put your head down. He tenderly wraps his arms around you and pulls you down with him until the both of you are lying with your back against the deck. Together you look at the sky, or pretend to look at the sky while you're secretly stealing glances of each other. There is a peaceful silence, which is a nice change from the loud party you were at not so long ago. After a while he rests his head on top of yours while he lovingly starts to stroke your arm. The loving gesture slightly tickles you, which is why you can't stand it for very long. "Baby.. Can you please stop that? It tickles.." you softly say.

He softly chuckles. "Stop what..?" he asks teasingly.

You fight back a smile as you gently push his hand away and pull away from him. "Really? Are you really going to start that again?"

He flashes you an 'innocent' smile. "I'm not starting anything... I'm merely continuing what you started."

"Really funny babe. What are you, five?" you tease with a grin.

"Nah, more like four.. Four and a half tops." he grins back.

You playfully roll your eyes. "Oh just shut up, Mal."

The look on his face already tells you that he won't shut up, and your suspicion gets confirmed when he opens his mouth again. "Or wh-"

But before he's able to finish his question, he's interrupted by you tickling him in his sides. "Or this.." you answer with an mischievous smile to his unfinished question.

He bursts out in laughter and tries his best to escape your fingers, but he fails miserably. You get kind of cocky, thinking you have the upper hand, and give him a moment of rest to catch his breath. Barely a second later you realize that that was a big mistake, because Mal immediately tries to counter attack. You quickly get up and try to get into safety by running towards the apartment. But he's quicker than you are and manages to get hold of you nevertheless. You try to squirm out of his grip, but it's no use. You know that from experience… All of a sudden he just lifts you up and throws you over his shoulder. The unexpected moves makes you yelp in surprise. You can't help but laugh at the ridiculous situation. "Mal, let me go. Now." You say, trying your best to sound serious.

He laughs, but doesn't let you go. "Nah. You got this on yourself. That's what you get for tickling me." He says while he enters the apartment and makes his way to the bedroom. Once he's there, he gently lays you down on your back on the bed and lies down next to you with his arms still wrapped around you. "Now, be a good girl and snuggle up with me for the night, will you? I'm way too exhausted to carry you around the house any longer." He says overly exaggerated.

You fake a sigh. "Alright, alright. I'll snuggle up with you.. But only because I know that you're afraid of the big, scary monsters under the bed."

He instantly gets a cute little frown on his face. "What? I'm not- That's redic-"

You softly giggle because he's so easily offended. "It's okay babe, you don't have to lie to me.. I honestly don't mind. If anything, I think it's very, very cute…" you tease. Then you tickle him again to make the frown disappear.

He laughs again, but uses his weight to get on top of you. He grabs your hands and holds them together above your head, thus making sure that you're not able to tickle him anymore. "Shut up, stop tickling and be nice." He says with a grin while hovering above you.

You look up to him and pretty much drown in his ocean blue eyes. "Make me.." you breathe.

He gets this mischievous look on his face that you've learned to love as his face slowly inches closer to you. You instinctively close your eyes right before his soft lips tenderly touch yours. And when they finally do, you get caught up in the rapture. It feels like you're in a daze, causing you to barely notice that he lets go of your hands to lovingly caress your cheek. Even though you're now free to move however you want, you do not move an inch. His kisses simply hold you hostage. You cannot break away from him. Although, if you're being honest with yourself, you haven't tried hard to break away from him.. Simply because you don't really want to.

**Okay so Malachi's reaction to when Raj approaches might seem a little weird, but keep in mind that Raj is kinda waiting for Mal to propose. Mal was just swerving him :') **

**I know I said this would be an interactive story and I'd ask questions after every chapter so you guys could influence it by voting… But I honestly have no idea what I'll do with the next chapter so I don't really have any questions for you guys XD **

**Review replies:**

**Crimson Endings: Everyone in their right mind would love a little Maltara baby ;) Because he or she will be a freakin' blessing from above! Thank you Tori :)**

**Mozzi-Girl: Thank you sweetie! I know… I still can't believe it myself XD Hahahaha I had to put it somewhere in this story, right? It's too awesome not to be used :') Lmfao, *****calls you an ambulance XD * try not to die again please .. **

**NiekaWow: Hmm.. Idk tbh.. Care to find out? :') Man ikr, he is WAY too Maldorable! If only there were more guys like him… You are? I'm gonna read it right away :D Thank you for reviewing :)**

**Guest: Hahaha I made Georgia a party girl like you requested.. I'm just not really comfortable with the whole Mal-cheating-on-Natara story line.. Not even when it wasn't his fault XD I love both characters too much to ever hurt them that way… Sorry :/ **

**HoplessRomantic1994: Thank youu! Hahaha Maldorable perfectly describes Mal when he's with Natara imo asdfghjkl **

**DizzyRedhead: They are, aren't they? Freakin' adorable hahahah! **

**Danielle: hahahah, that can be arranged… There's a few more chapters ahead so.. Who knows! **

**Miles Above My Head: Awwww thank you! I'm not though, but thanks anyway :)**

**The Beautiful Filth: Lmfaooo, maybe she did! But is that a bad thing? ;) **

**SaLTndPepper: Hahahaha it's all good.. I totally get it ;) The CoD team is giving us heavenly Maltara fluff asdfghjkl. And don't worry, it'll happen soon enough! :D**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hiiii everyone! :D**

**I have some good news, and bad news..**

**Lemme start with the bad news first: this is probably gonna be the last chapter for at least a few weeks cuz I have exams coming up and I really wanna focus on those.. So, yeah.. Sorry about that! I will finish the story eventually though xD**

**The good news is that this is a fairly long chapter, and I hope y'all will like it! Also, Justin Timberlake is returning to musiiiic! :D :D **

**Review replies are at the bottom! Enjoy this chapter! **

**You are now Mal Fallon.**

It's somewhere early in the afternoon when you and Natara head to the beach after an extensive breakfast. It was surprisingly uncrowded in the dining room. Even though it was fairly late to be having breakfast, you kind of expected more people to be there at this time of the day, since last nights party didn't end until a handful of hours passed midnight. The lack of people in the dining room could be explained by two options. Option one is that everyone got up earlier than you two did, and had breakfast before you were even awake. The other, more likely option is that everyone else was so exhausted that they are still asleep. Which is totally understandable, because if your phone hadn't exploded with texts from Kai you'd probably still be asleep as well. You wanted to go back to bed after turning your phone off, but after a quick glance to the clock Natara argued that it would be better to get some food instead. It was a beautiful day after all, and it would be a waste to spend it in bed sleeping all day long. Eventually you gave in, and after a nice cold shower to wake you up completely, you headed out the door. Only to realise that the car's still parked at Raj' mansion, you took Natara by the hand for a relaxing morn- afternoon stroll over the beach. As far as you could see the beach was pretty much empty as well, making you wonder where everyone was.

Anyway, when you finally get to the beach it's still pretty much deserted. After finding a nice spot Natara lays down a towel. Just as soon as the towel touches the sand, you collapse on top of it, look up to Natara with a grin and raise your arms towards her, silently asking her to join you. She laughs as she gladly takes her spot in your arms. Together you enjoy the peaceful surrounding. The sound of the waves crashing onto the beach stays in the background while you and Natara talk about everything and nothing. As time passes, more and more people join you on the beach to enjoy the wonderful weather while they still can. Natara gets sucked into a girly conversation, and since don't have anything to add, you simply lie down and slowly doze off.

At some point Jesse walks past while typing something on his phone, but he stops in his tracks when he sees you. "Hey Mal, Zac and me are gonna go shoot some hoops on a court not so far from here. Just us guys. You in?" he asks with a hopeful smile.

Your eyes shoot open when you hear your name. The simple thought of a good game of basketball gets your adrenaline pumping. Even though you'd love to go, you briefly look at Natara to silently ask her permission.

"Yeah sure, go ahead. I'll come over to cheer you on in a minute."

You flash her a thankful smile back and give her a soft kiss on her cheek. "Thanks babe." Then you jump up and walk towards the basketball court that's located at the edge of the beach with Jesse, who quickly types something on his phone again before putting it away permanently.

As you do so, you come across a group of people. While your eyes quickly scan the small crowd, you can't help but notice that it mainly consists out of girls. You quickly say hello to everyone before turning to the only guy in the group. "Hey, Tom! We're heading off to play some basketball, would you like to join us?"

Tom, who's staying behind to chat while the others walk around you, unfortunately shakes his head. "No thanks, I'll pass. But thanks for asking.." He pats you on the shoulder just before he walks past you to follow the others.

Before you're able to answer, Jesse cuts in. "Oh come on, Tom! We need another player to play two on two!"

The sound of his voice makes Tom turn around, but he doesn't exactly seem convinced yet.

"Yeah, come on! It'll be fun." you say, trying to convince him. His eyes quickly dart towards the basketball court, clearly doubting his earlier decision. "…Or are you afraid you might lose?" you add with a grin, trying to push him over the edge so that he'll join you.

For some reason this makes him chuckle. "Nah, I'm positive I'd kick your ass.. Which is exactly why I don't want to play. My team would have a huge advantage." He brags with a huge grin.

You raise your eyebrows at him and shoot him an amused look. "Oh, is that so?"

He takes a step forward, getting all up in your face, and looks you straight in the eyes as he lowers his voice a bit. "Well, I wás the captain of our college basketball team, so you tell me.."

Behind his back Molly, who stayed behind to wait for Tom, playfully rolls her eyes. "Here we go again.." She whispers to Tori, making her laugh.

"College was a long time ago, Thomas." You say with a smirk.

The arrogant look on his face doesn't seem to want to disappear. "Maybe for you it was, Mal... Is Mal short for anything?"

"Nah, it's just Mal.." you lie, because you hate it when people use your full name.

"He's lying!" Neha says from behind your back, slightly startling you because you hadn't even noticed her sneaking up on you. "It's short for Malachi."

You quickly turn around and shoot her a death stare, which she gladly returns with a huge grin. "I overheard you guys talking.. Here's an idea; why don't we all go to the court, and we can play in teams?" she suggests.

You look back to Tom to see what he's thinking, who in turn looks to Molly. She simply shrugs. "Yeah sure, why not?"

When you get to the court after gathering everyone that was chilling on the beach, Zac and Nikki are already present. Zac is dribbling around with a basketball, doing tricks to entertain her. When he notices all of you heading their way he puts the ball under the arm. "I though you'd only bring Mal.." he says to Jesse with a grin.

Jesse awkwardly scratches the back of his neck. "Yeah.. I, uh… Change of plans?"

Zac throws the ball towards the guy standing closest to him, in this case Tom, and smiles when he catches it with no problem. "Not a problem. The more people, the better! Right? Now... How are we going to make the teams?"

You look at the faces around you and do a quick headcount. "How about the grooms family versus the brides family?" you suggest.

"Sounds like a pl-" Zac starts.

But Neha interrupts him. "I vote for Tom and Mal as team captains, because they were squirreling like a cute, old married couple a little while ago."

There's some giggles and laughter coming from all around you while you shoot Neha another death stare. Eventually everyone agrees and the families split up to head for either side of the field.

As soon as everyone has gathered around you, you look around to find that one person you're looking for. "You!" You point to Neha. "Bench." You point towards the bench on the side of the field. "Now."

She immediately opens her mouth to protest. "What?! Why? It was my idea t-"

"Because you told Tom my full first name. You know damn well that I don't like people calling me that.." Since she's still looking unimpressed, you decide to add a little more drama. "I thought you always had my back.. But you just ratted me out.. I thought I could trust you."

She playfully rolls her eyes at you before she turns around and starts to walk towards the bench. "Fine. Whatever, Malachi." She mumbles, just loud enough for you to hear it.

You shake your head and suppress a grin. "Hey! I heard that!" You shout after her.

"Good! You were supposed to!" she yells back with a huge smile.

At that moment Natara gently takes your hand and softly squeezes it. "She's just playing around, don't let her get to you.."

You flash her a smile. "I know she is.. Don't worry about it." you give her a soft kiss on the forehead, and then turn to your teammates for the next match. They're taking turns trying to get the ball through the hoop. It's all fun and laughter. You watch them for a while, glad that they are so enthusiastic. Then you shortly glance over to the other side of the field, where Tom is discussing things with his team, they seem to take a more serious approach.

It doesn't take long before the teams are made and gather around the circle at the centre of the court to start the game. Meanwhile the substitutes take their seats on the bench, while most of the women choose to function as cheerleaders instead and make their way to the small supporters stand located next to the court. After the jump off, everything moves pretty fast. The opposite team manages to get hold of the ball and they quickly pass it around. Eventually Tom ends up with the ball, throws it towards the basket, but he misses! He softly cusses under his breath while you catch the rebound. You make a quick pass to Zac, who dribbles halfway across the field, swerving players from the other team until he meets their defense. He plays the ball off to Jesse, who has a free path to dribble towards the basket. He takes a leap and finishes off with a perfect lay-up. There's no better way to start a match.

Time flies by, and soon it's already the fourth quarter. The other team stepped their game up and they're now head to head with yours. You rely on Zac and Jesse to hold the team down while you've taken a seat on the substitutes bench again to give other people a chance to play too. With a huge grin on your face you watch how Natara runs after the ball, clearly enjoying herself.

Since you were staring at her, you have now clue how the ball ends up going high in the air. It goes so high that it temporarily disappears in the sunrays. When it falls back down, it's headed in Natara's direction. She's squeezing her eyes, in search of the ball. But when she finally sees it, it's too late and she misses it by a split second as a player from the other member jumps in front of her to intercept the ball. Before Natara was able to react, the ball already went through the hoop of your team. Everyone on the other team starts cheering because the score's even once again. Meanwhile Natara walks around with a sad, disappointed look you know all to well. She's clearly blaming herself, so you know you have to step in.

"TIME-OUT!" you yell.

Everyone, even your own team, turns to look at you with an annoyed look on their face, but you don't care.

"Nat!" You gesture for Natara to come over. "Come here for a second."

She jogs over to where you are. "What is it?" she asks curiously.

"Here.." You take of your sunglasses and place them on her nose. "Bam. That should do the trick." you smile.

She flashes you an appreciative smile back. "Thanks babe."

"You're welcome. It looks better on you anyway." She opens her mouth to protest, so you put a finger on her lips to silence her. "You honestly look gorgeous, with or without sunglasses.. Now…" You grab her by the shoulders and turn her around. "Get back out there, and kick some ass!" When she starts walking, you playfully slap her ass.

She does a little, cute jump as you do so. Then she looks back to you with a fake-shocked look on her face. She moves her glasses a bit down, and makes straight eye contact with you. "I believe that that was what they like to call 'inappropriate behaviour', captain.." she says with a mischievous smile on her face.

"Oh, is it really?" you ask with a smirk. You take a step towards her and let your voice drop a little. "Maybe we should discuss that after the game. In the dressing room.. Alone…"

She softly giggles. "Sounds like a plan.." She whispers back before she walks off towards the field, looking back one more time to send you a blow kiss.

The game continues, and 30 seconds before the end you get back on the field because the score is still tied. The seconds are ticking away, and you know that the team who scores in the next few seconds is probably going to win. By some miracle your team gets possession of the ball. After passing it around for a few seconds, you try to find an open spot in their defence. You see that multiple players of the other team are covering both Jesse and Zac. That means that there are people of your team that are completely free. You desperately look around, and spot Neha standing in shooting-range of the basket. So you play the ball to her, and she takes the shot.

Everyone holds their breath while watching how the ball slowly descends towards the basket. To everyone's surprise the ball goes through the ring without even touching it just as the time's up. Not that anyone cares about how flawless the shot was at that moment, because one half if the field is groaning in frustration, while the other half is cheering their lungs out while running towards Neha. She gets buried in hugs and kisses by the whole team.

Later that day you find yourself in the bedroom of your temporary apartment. After celebrating winning the basketball game everyone headed home to take a shower and get ready for the last dinner together.

While Natara's in the bathroom, you quickly walk over to the walk-in-closet. Trying to be as quiet as possible, you open the door. You slip inside and quickly glance around, looking for your favourite pair of short pants. It doesn't take long before you spot it, and you quickly take it from the shelf. Your hand slides inside its pocket and you retrieve a small jewellers box from it. You throw your pants back on the shelf before you open it and check the content. You can't help but smile as you think about what's going to happen during dinner. You pull yourself out of your thoughts and make your way to the bedroom again. You put the box in the pocket of the inside of your jacket, and close the door behind you. You look in the mirror and adjust your bowtie when Natara steps out. She looks absolutely stunning, and her natural beauty temporarily takes your breath away. "Wow.." is all you can say.

She smiles widely at you as she walks over. "Do you like my new dress?" she asks teasingly.

You try to speak, but the words refuse to leave your mouth. So all you do is smile and nod. You scrape your throat and try to regain your posture. "Yeah, I, uhm.. Of course I like it. It looks good."

She raises her eyebrows at you. "... Good?"

You wrap your arms around her waist and softly kiss her. "Yeah babe. Your dress looks good.. But I'm sure that it looks great on the floor.." you whisper half jokingly. You enjoy the small blush that makes its way to her cheeks.

**You are now Natara Mansingh.**

Dinner was so much fun that it was over before you knew it. Afterwards everyone headed out to the deck to talk and have fun, but after a few hours you find yourself longing for some peace and quiet. And after a quick look at Mal, you know that he feels the same way. So the two of you say your goodbyes to everyone, and get back to your temporary home. Instead of going straight to bed, you and Mal take a seat at the small terrace overlooking the beach, accompanied with a half full bottle of wine. Ever since you've arrived, you wanted to take a moment to appreciate the gorgeous view you have from your apartment with Mal. Although he doesn't seem that interested in his view at all. He's continuously looking at you instead. When you turn your head to tease him with it, you get lost in his eyes.

"Natara..?" He softly asks in his deep, very sexy voice when he sees that he has your attention.

You continue to lovingly gaze into his stunning, sapphire blue eyes. "Hmm? Yes babe?"

"I know I've said it hundreds of times before, but you looked absolutely gorgeous in that dress yesterday.."

The compliment catches you completely off guard, which is why you can't come up with a good response right away. It causes the heat to rush towards your cheeks.

He smiles at your reaction, sees it as a sign to step up his game, and become even sweeter and more adorable than before. "Just seeing you walk down that aisle made me incredibly happy and it made me smile like crazy. Not to mention that your stunning smile stirred up all kinds of butterflies inside of me. It was one of those breath-taking moments where I realised that I am deeply, and uncontrollably in love with you, and nothing will ever change that.

And it got me thinking.. There is nothing that can change my love for you, because I love every little thing about you. The way you work day out and day in, and still find time for us too.. I love that fact that you're always there for me when I feel down, no matter what I'm going through.

Not to mention that you are drop dead beautiful. All in all you are amazing." He takes a short pause to let his words sink in.

You want to thank him for everything he has said until now, but he has left you so speechless that you don't know how. Which is why you are grateful when he continues.

"...In fact, you're just a diamond short of perfect..."

Your heart skips a beat or two when he stands up from his seat and makes his way over to you.

"Luckily.. I happen to have a spare one right here..."

You temporarily forget how to breathe while you watch how he takes out a small jewellers box from his jacket pocket.

He gets down on one knee while he opens the box and looks up to you with a cute, slightly insecure smile. He holds the box in front of you and gently takes your hand in his. "... This ring here represents my heart, and you'd make me the happiest man alive if you'd agree to wear it. I know that this might be a little out of the blue, but what's the point in waiting any longer, when I know that you are everything I want, and so much more..?"

Even though you are not the type of person that cries easily, his words cause tears to well up in your eyes.

"If you'll have me, I will happily spend the rest of my life with you... Will you m-"

The rest of his words are lost when you unexpectedly throw yourself at him and embrace him in a hug. The sudden change of weight causes him to fall back, but you don't care. You bury your head in his chest and hold him tight while you close your eyes to prevent the tears from escaping your eyes.

Underneath you Mal starts to chuckle. You feel his hand soothingly running through your hair. "Is that a yes..?"

Since you don't really trust your own voice at the moment, you simply nod a few times.

He lets out a deep sigh of relieve while he envelops you into a tight embrace. Then he lovingly kisses the top of your head. "I love you so, so much..." He softly whispers in your hair.

You force yourself to look up to him, and see him looking down at you with one of the most adorable smiles ever. "I love you too..."

**HOLY CRAP ON A CRACKER ASDFGHJKLSGHDFJ THEY'RE ENGAAAGEDDD! FINNALLYYYYY! :D :D **

**Okay, here are the review replies loool:**

**HoplessRomantic1994: Thank you for all your kind words Jade :D **

**DizzyRedhead: Hahahah uuhm… I think it's too late to vote for that XD Sorry :p **

**Maltara2010: Hahaha aww thanks! :D**

Mozzi-Girl: Dammit, stay alive for once woman! You die too much on me :( Originally I was gonna make Malachi respond with 'I'd rather make you scream…' but.. yeah XD I felt like that might be too much loool. 

**NiekaWow: Awww thank you so much! **

**SaLTndPepper: Hahahaha awww, maybe this is a good start of the new year? ;) Loool, get your cousin to play CoD as well! Yess, I agree with you! Molly and Jade write amazing things as well :D**

**The Beautiful Filth: Hahahahahha! Sorry for making you squeal, I hope no one was home at that moment loool :p Also hope you didn't squeal too hard during this chapter.. :')**

**Daygamer: Awww welcome to fanfiction then! :D Thank you so much! Do you happen to have a tumblr? A lot of ff people are also on tumblr ;)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey everyone! **

**I'm so sorry for the MASSIVE delay, but I've been suffering from writers block. On top of that school's been kicking my butt as well, you know how it is :p Hope this chapter makes up for it :) Enjoy!**

**You are now Mal Fallon.**

It's somewhere in the afternoon when the small airstrip is buzzing with activity. Several planes are ready to take the visitors to the nearest big airport. From there on everyone will catch a plane home, since there's simply not enough room to arrange such a departure from this small island. Everyone is getting ready to leave, and thus saying their final goodbyes. People are getting hugged all around. Even though every one is about to go their own way, the mood is still great. Laughter and enthusiastic shouting fills the air. Meanwhile you and Natara are sitting on a fallen log at the edge of the airstrip, overlooking everything that's happening.

You can't help but smile as you watch how Maise unexpectedly jumps on the back of Hannah, thus making her shriek at first. But as soon as she realises who it is, she bursts out in laughter.

"Weird as it may be... But I'm actually going to miss them.." You quietly remark.

"Why is that weird..? They're lovely people after all."

"That's more than true. I guess it just feels weird because I don't even know them that lo-"

You're interrupted by a cute, soft voice coming from your lap. "Bubbles!" Vanessa giggles while she leans dangerously far forward, trying to snatch the bottle from Natara's hands.

Thanks to your quick reflexes you prevent her from falling. Somehow this makes her giggle even louder, as if she liked the feeling of almost falling to the ground. "Hey there little princess, watch where you're going. We don't want you to get hurt, now do we?" You ask, clearly concerned.

The tone of your voice makes her look at you with big eyes before she quickly shakes her head.

Satisfied with her response, you look back up to Natara. And, as always, she'd been observing the two of you with an enormous smile. "Are you ready for some bubbles?" she asks Vanessa, even though she already knows the answer.

As soon as Vanessa hears the word "bubbles" her mood immediately shifts from serious to enormously happy. "Yeaaaahh!" She cheers, while clapping her hands.

"Are you suuuuure?" Natara teasingly asks her.

Vanessa enthusiastically nods in response.

Natara softly chuckles at her enthusiasm. "Okay.. Here it goes..." She dips the stick into the soap while she starts a countdown. "3... 2..."

Impatient as you are, you interrupt her. "Just blow already!" You say without thinking it through.

Natara raises her eyebrows. "Did you just say you want me to blow something?" She gets a slightly naughty look on her face. "...Where did I hear that before?"

You playfully roll your eyes. "Oh come on... That's not how I meant it." You softly scrape your throat. "At least not this time..." You softly add under your breath. You then flash Natara a smirk.

Meanwhile Vanessa, who's not interested in the conversation at all, quickly gets tired of waiting and starts to pull on Natara's arm to make her hurry up.

Natara shoots you a look that tells you that she heard what you said, but chooses not to respond to you. She then focuses on her impatient niece, and blows some bubbles for her instead.

The first round of bubbles completely fills the air around you. Vanessa gets so excited that she starts squealing as she tries to pop the bubbles with her fingers. You make sure that she doesn't fall off of your lap as she does so.

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again; you are _veryyy_ good at blowing things.. " you compliment Natara with a grin.

"Mal!" She's clearly trying to suppress a smile "Behave!" She nods towards Vanessa.

You simply shrug. "She's not even paying attention to us..."

The fun is soon over after all the bubbles have been popped, and Vanessa eagerly looks back to Natara, basically begging her with her eyes to blow some more bubbles.

When Natara blows the second round, Vanessa takes your hand and makes you pop bubbles as well. For some reason Natara sees this as a sign to keep blowing bubbles, and you could've sworn you saw a hint of a little evil grin while she was at it. But you don't really care, because Vanessa's happiness and laughter is infectious. And soon the three of you are all laughing, and happily popping bubbles.

After you've popped so many bubbles that you've lost count, you notice how Danieka runs over to you. It seems that Natara has noticed it too, because she softly nudges Vanessa. "Look who's over there!"

The little girls face lights up when she sets eyes on the running figure. "Mooooommy!" She's ready to jump off your lap to run towards her mom, but you stop her.

"Where do you think you're going, princess" you ask teasingly. Then you playfully lift Vanessa up, throwing her in the air a couple of times, after which you let her sit on your neck. Together with Natara, you start walking to meet up with Danieka halfway.

She's barely in hearing distance when she starts talking. "Hey guys, thanks so much for watching over her, again. I finally found Sammie the tiger under the bed." She explains, half out of breath.

You put Vanessa down and laugh at how she enthusiastically runs over to her mom, but mostly to Sammie.

"Don't worry about it. It was our pleasure." Natara answers with a smile.

Meanwhile Danieka swoops Vanessa up into her arms, and gives her Sammie, who immediately gets enveloped into a big hug.

"Yeah, she's an absolute angel after all." You truthfully add with a smile of your own.

Danieka lovingly looks to Vanessa, who is now happily playing with Sammie. "She is, isn't she? But she sure is a hand full… Aren't you, cutiepie?" She then tickles the little girl, making her giggle adorably.

Her laughter doesn't go unnoticed by everyone else on the airstrip. Which is exactly why Jesse walks over. "Heeeey, there's my favourite niece!" He, with permission of course, takes Vanessa out of Danieka's arms and gives her a kiss on her cheek. "Hey gorgeous. Are you going to miss your favourite uncle?"

She nods in response. "Yes. Going to miss uncle Mal very much." She pouts.

Jesse looks a little taken aback by this and takes a second to process this moment. "… Uncle Mal? I thought your uncle Jesse was your favourite!"

She shakes her head. "Yes, but uncle Mal makes pretty sandcastles! I like pretty sandcastles.." she explains herself.

Everyone, except for Jesse himself, starts laughing at her answer. Nikki notices this, and pats him on the shoulder. "That's probably not how you thought it would go, huh?"

"Nah, she definitely caught me off guard this time…" Then he starts to laugh as well. "You'd better step your game up Mal, I'm coming for that 'favourite uncle' spot with all that I have.."

Before you get to answer, other people start to mingle. "Who says I can't be her favourite uncle?" Zac asks jokingly.

Meanwhile Neha wonders out loud who Vanessa's favourite aunt might be, which leads to a huge discussion between all the women.

Surprisingly, it is Raj who breaks the discussion up with the announcement that the plane is about to leave, with or without them.

Everyone is about to say their final goodbyes and head for the airplane when you loudly scrape your throat. All of a sudden you're starting to feel very nervous. It gets even worse when all eyes fall on you. Thankfully you feel how Natara places her hand into yours as a sign of support. You take a deep breath, and urge yourself to man up. "Hey guys, before you go... We'd, uhm.. Like to announce something.." You interlace your fingers with hers, feeling a lot more confident as you do so. You pause for a second to scan the crowd in front of you, and notice a lot of curious faces looking back.

"What's up?" Neha asks impatiently.

You softly squeeze Natara's hand, to let her know that she's up and turn your head to face her. She's failing horribly to suppress the huge smile forcing its way on her face, making you smile as well. "Well... Last evening Mal proposed to me, and I've accepted."

There is a short silence as everyone processes the great news, and then everyone shouts their congratulations from all sides at the same time. Things happen so fast that you can barely comprehend it.

"Oh my god, that is amazing!"

"Congratulations!"

"I'm so happy for you two!"

But the loudest of them all is Neha who yells "GROUP HUG!"

You look around with wide eyes to see people are suddenly rushing to you from all sides. "Oh, are we just gonna-" Before you can finish your sentence you get pulled along into the craziness by Natara, and all of a sudden you find yourself in the middle of a group hug. "Oh... Okay.." You mumble. But you still participate and wrap your arm around the people that are closest to you.

Sadly the group hug comes to an end, and it's time to really say goodbye to everyone. After the last round of hugs and kisses, you watch how they board the plane. Together with Raj, Anita, Neha and Natara you wave until the plane takes off.

The plane has barely left the airstrip when Neha spins on her heels and faces Natara and you with a mischievous grin. "Soooo, how does it feel to be engaged?"

**Just imagine a fancy pants dinner with the remaining Mansingh family here, talking about the engagement and how happy they are and stuff.. Cuz I've been staring at this page for ages and I couldn't come up with something that was worth posting.**

**You are now Natara Mansingh.**

After enjoying a delightful dinner with your parents and sister, you and Mal excuse yourself, and head to your temporary home. After all the craziness of the last few days, a little bit of rest would be quite welcome. Especially since it's almost time to leave for the two of you as well, so the time to enjoy and appreciate the beautiful nature around you would be right now. Which is why Mal immediately wants to head towards the deck that overlooks the beach. You let him go ahead, while you quickly head inside to fix both of you a lovely cocktail.

When you finally step onto the deck with two mojito's in your hand, you frown because can't seem to spot him anywhere. "Mal? Where are you?" you call out with a frown.

"I'm down here!" he vaguely answers.

You follow the sound of his voice towards fence at the edge of the deck, and look down. Surprisingly you see your handsome –correction– _enormously_ handsome fiancé lying in a hammock that is tied in between two palm trees. The light of the setting sun is illuminating his face, highlighting all the features you love so much. The gorgeous grin he flashes you as soon as he sets eyes on you only makes it better. You feel that tingly feeling in your stomach, the one that you'll never get used to, but you don't want to either. Your frown immediately disappears, and is replaced by a smirk. "What are you doing all the way over there?" you ask curiously.

"Well, I was leaning over the fence like you are right now, and I saw this hammock just hanging here all abandoned. So I figured we might as well use it.." He then points towards the ocean. "The view is beautiful from here, by the way. You might want to see for yourself."

"You know what? I might actually do that…" You say while you make your way down the stairs and walk towards him, making sure not to spill the precious content in the glasses you're currently holding.

When you come closer he extends his arms towards you. "Finally, there is my most favourite thing in the whole wide world!" he says sweetly. "And I'm glad that you made it here as well…" he adds with an evil look.

You suppress a smile and roll your eyes at him. Then you turn on your heels and walk back to the deck. "Remind me, why am I engaged to you again…?" you ask over your shoulder.

"Wait, wait, waaait!" He hastily scrambles out of the hammock and runs over to stop you by taking you by the arm. "I was joooking. Of course I was talking about you, not about the mojito."

"How do I know you're not joking right now?" You ask, trying your best to keep a straight face. You're about to pull your arm back and continue to walk away from him, to make your little act a little more believable, when he starts talking again.

"Babe…." He spins you around and puts both hands on either side of your face. His stunning blue eyes find yours in a split second. He looks at you in an adorable, loving way, almost making your heart melt. "You are the love of my life." He softly says in a very serious tone, making it unable to ever doubt his words. Before you're able to respond, his lips softly caress yours. He suddenly pulls back, and takes you by the arm again. "Now come on, it's time to relax a bit." He drags you towards the hammock, and gets comfy in it. Then he signs for you to join him.

A big part of you wants to join him immediately, yet you sceptically look at the slightly worn out hammock. "Are you sure this thing will be able to hold the weight of both of us..?"

"Yes." He tries to say truthfully, but his face tells you that he thinks otherwise.

You raise your eyebrows at him, letting him know that you can see through his little façade.

He flashes you an apologetic smile. "Okay, maybe not.. But if anything is going to happen, I will break our fall." He tries to convince you.

You're not really convinced yet, but he doesn't seem to care because he quickly pulls you towards him, until you suddenly sit on his lap. The two of you are share a silent moment for a while, waiting for the hammock to give in.

When nothing happens Mal widely smiles at you. "See, told you it was fine."

You can't help but laugh and playfully slap his chest. "No seriously, why are we engaged again..?" you teasingly ask while you hand him his mojito.

He laughs, and gives you a sweet kiss that temporarily makes you feel like you're in seventh heaven. "That's why.." he softly answers.

Moments quickly pass, and the empty mojito glasses get discarded on the ground. You've cuddled up with Mal and rest your head on his chest. Both of you are looking out onto to the beach, simply enjoying the peace and quiet.

After a while you look up to the man you're laying on top of, who's peacefully looking at the beach next to him. The man that makes you feel all fuzzy and tingly when you look at him. The man who makes your heart beat faster by just smiling at you. The man who you'll proudly call your husband in the foreseeable future.

He notices that you're lovingly gazing at him, so he looks down to you with a curious look on his face.

You shyly smile at him, because he just caught you staring. To avert his attention, you try to say something funny or clever. But only three words come to mind. "I love you."

Those words cause him to smile widely as he wraps his arms tighter around you and kisses your head. "I love you too." He softly mumbles into your hair.

You lay your head back down on his chest again. Several silent, peaceful seconds pass as the both of you are simply enjoying each others company. But then an evil idea pops up in your mind. "I love you more..." You teasingly add.

He softly chuckles underneath you. "You keep saying that, but I highly doubt it..."

"Why? It's true!" you try to convince him, although you barely believe it yourself.

The look on his face tells you that he doesn't buy it either. "Oh, is it? Why don't you enlighten me."

You raise your eyebrows at him. "What do you mean?" you ask confused.

He lovingly strokes some hair out of your face. "Try to explain how much you love me, and I'll say if you truly love me more." He explains himself.

"I can't possibly put my love for you into words.." you say truthfully.

He shrugs at you. "Try it anyway."

"Okay, fine... " You take a second to think it through. "Hmm... Oh, I know! I love you from here, to the moon, all the way to the farthest star in the universe, and back!"

"Heh.. That's funny."

"What is?"

"I only love you from here to that palm tree over there..."

You furrow your eyebrows. "Is that your idea of a joke? Becau-"

He quickly puts his finger on your lips. "Ssssh, you didn't let me finish... I meant to say that I love you so much that you have to take that distance between here and there, and then multiply it by a countless amount of times. THAT is how much I love you."

So many things go through your head all at once, that you don't even know how to respond. You let your head drop to his chest and sigh. "Fiiiine, you win. You're impossible, do you know that?"

"Yes, I do. But it's all love?"

You look up to him and stick out your tongue, making him laugh. Then you change the way you're laying, putting your arms on his chest and letting your head rest on them. From that position you observe his face for a moment. Meanwhile he shoots you another curious look, almost the same look as the one that started all of this in the first place.

"... Is it too late to change my previous answer?"

"Yes." He immediately answers, not even having to think it through.

You fake a frown. "You are mean."

"But I love you?"

"That only makes it worse…"

"Is me kissing you mean?"

You're slightly taken aback by this sudden question. "No, but -"

Before you're able to finish your sentence, he interrupts you. "Then I'm not mean." He then leans forward until his lips tenderly caress yours.

At that very moment it seems like the rest of the world suddenly stopped existing. It's just you and him in that hammock. You can hear the waves of the ocean crashing on the sand and the local birds that are chirping from trees and bushes. You've noticed how the setting sun coloured the sky a beautiful mixture of red/orange. And, even though you know in the back of your head that this is absolutely untrue, it almost feels like all of this was arranged to change this simple, yet mind-blowing kiss into one of the most special, magical kisses you've ever had in your life. Something about that kiss makes the butterflies in your stomach go crazy. Something about that kiss made you forget that you had to breathe. Something about that kiss made you lose yourself in the moment. The best part of all of this, is that every single kiss of him makes you feel as amazing as this one does.

When he slowly pulls back, you almost refuse to let go of him and the wonderful feeling he gives you. You lean down to extend the kiss for a few microseconds longer, and then pull back yourself. As you do so, a smile forces its way onto your face. You don't go too far from his precious lips, making sure you keep hovering a few millimetres above them. You keep your eyes shut as you take a moment to process the kiss. You've barely succeeded, when you already find yourself leaning down for another magical kiss.


End file.
